More misunderstandings, confusion and second-hand embarrassment up ahead. Enjoy.


"Sooo, you and make-up, huh?" Hunk sat in the chair at his desk, its back squeaking when he reclined as if to make a point of its own.

"Yeah, that's the thing," Lance offered unenthusiastically, still avoiding his roommate's eyes. After getting up from the floor and quickly snatching a clean shirt from the closet, he pulled it on and now sat on his narrow bunk, clutching a pillow to his chest for comfort.

"Just so you know, I'm cool with that," Hunk said simply, and Lance blinked at him in surprise.

"You are?" the earlier encounter with Keith must've really drained him, and in different circumstances he would've probably squealed with delight and relief, but as he was at the moment he could only master a slow uncertain smile.

"Yeah, I mean, you're really good at it, man," Hunk beamed back at him full-force and Lance suddenly felt his bottom lip quiver. "Hey, I'm telling you, it's cool. Come on, no crying on my watch," he stood and made his way to Lance's bed, sitting carefully on the edge.

"Oh, I'm not, I just," Lance rarely fumbled with his words, but to express the amount of gratitude he was feeling for his friend right now was too difficult. "Thanks. You're the first to tell me that and it- It means a lot, really."

"No problem," Hunk rubbed the back of his head and smiled an easy smile that made Lance feel much better about himself and the whole situation. His hand rose to his face to wipe away the unbidden tears on impulse, but he stopped himself in time. No need to stain his body with make-up products more than he already had. Speaking of which...

"Uh, Hunk, buddy, tell me, how come Keith borrowed your book?" Lance glanced at the powder still sparkling on his forearm and smeared it with a finger.

"What book?" Hunk looked perplexed and Lance was going to point at the top of the stack on his desk, but Hunk suddenly furrowed his brows. "Wait, you mean Keith, as in half-Galra exchange student top of the class fighter pilot Keith?" Lance silently marvelled at how he managed to say that in one breath.

"Yeah, like, how many Keiths you know?"

"Riiight," Hunk kept staring at him like he grew a second head or something. "Um, well, I'd say none, cause if you remember, I'm an engineer, not a pilot, and the only class I share with you two this term is PE."

"Yeah, I remember, what does it have to do with-"

"Lance," he interrupted, making a pause for dramatic effect, as if Lance wasn't high-strung and uneasy enough already, "We don't need any textbooks to run laps and exercise." Lance blinked.

"Oh," was all he managed, glancing back and forth between Hunk and the book that lay among others on the desk, now a glaring intruder. "So you're saying..."

"He never borrowed anything from me," Hunk shook his head. "I doubt he ever spoke two words with me, and we've never been paired for sparring sessions, thank God. I don't know what Galra eat but Keith must've had a tad too much, did you see him throw Ryan last week like he weighed nothing?" Hunk was lost in the vivid memory and thus didn't notice the blank look Lance had on his normally expressive face.

'No, it couldn't be,' a lone thought rang in his mind as he climbed off the bed, throwing aside the pillow and stepping towards the desk with determination. He snatched up the book and flipped it open at a random page. Weird curvy alien symbols stared back at him, definitely mocking him. Alien Galran symbols. There was simply no way the book could be Hunk's.

Lance shut it and studied the cover, which stated perfectly in English 'Advanced Aerodynamics', but right there under the large bold title were the same curvy symbols, tiny and conveniently inconspicuous, probably indicating that it was all in Galran.

"Hey, how did that get in here?" Hunk peered over his shoulder at the foreign book.

"Keith brought it," Lance stated plainly, his mind still reeling, "to give back to you."

"Huh?" Hunk was genuinely at a loss and Lance told him in not too many words the epic tale of Keith arriving at their doorstep and him revealing his darkest secret in the least graceful fashion.

"... he didn't even let me explain, just spurted a bunch of nonsense and left. I mean, I thought it was just an accident, an series of unfortunate events, but now! Do you think he planned this in advance? Maybe he suspected something all along and just wanted to catch me in the act?" Lance desperately needed answers, and the longer he thought about what had happened, the more terrifying theories he was coming up with.

"Well, I guess that is a bit fishy but-,"

"Oh god, what if he sided with those assholes from the football team and they are spreading rumours already! My life will become hell, all because of that stupid plotting mullet! And to think I had a crush on h-," Lance cut himself off, cupping a hand to his big babbling mouth, but it was too late, the words had come out loud and clear. His eyes were filled with dread as he slowly turned to face Hunk, who had his arms crossed over his chest and a pensive expression on his face.

"Oh, I kinda figured," Lance gaped at him. "It wasn't that hard with the starry eyes you were giving him every time he knocked someone off their feet during practice."

"What! I did no such thing, it was just-," Lance sputtered, but Hunk rose a hand to silence him and shook his head.

"Yes, you did, don't deny it. And I don't mind that either," he smiled at Lance encouragingly, then furrowed his brows in thought once again. "I wonder what that was all about though, him lying about the book, a book in Galran no less."

"I wish I knew," Lance mumbled, scrubbing his hands over his prettily painted face in exasperation, he didn't care about ruining it any more. "I've gotta go wash this off," he said tiredly and headed for the tiny bathroom they were lucky to have in their room.

"Hey, Lance," Hunk called out when he was about to shut the door behind him. "Don't stress about it, whatever Keith was up to, we'll sort it out."

"Okay. Thanks," Lance smiled gratefully and giggled softly at the thumbs-up Hunk gave him.

As he was rubbing lotion into his face a few minutes later Lance couldn't shake off the feeling that he was missing something. He was working on his chin, fingers moving in small circles, when Allura's words from the latest video suddenly popped up in his head. "If there is one thing they are truly passionate about it is tradition," she said, talking about the Galra.

'Is it a Galran tradition to lie about knowing people and borrowing their stuff,' Lance mused, scooping a generous amount of moisturising night cream and spreading it over his cleansed skin.

'And what was that gibberish about mates and being promised to someone? Maybe it was just some tricky Galran slang?' the cooling effect of the cream did little to soothe him, because Lance's head literally felt aflame with all the thoughts madly circling around. He just didn't understand Keith's reaction, and what he said before running out of the room. Was he repulsed, confused or just wanted nothing to do with Lance ever again?

"Damn Galra and their weird ways," he huffed to himself, more out of frustration than out of spite, and proceeded to rub the cream down his neck, taking solace in its perfectly smooth surface. He didn't grow much facial hair, but always made sure to shave off every tiny hair that sprouted where he didn't want it to.

Distracted with the repetitive motions of his fingers Lance thought of Keith's hair and its thickness. He wondered idly if it was soft or coarse to the touch and whether Keith would like it if someone pulled on that disastrous mullet of his. Today was the first time they stood so close to one another, and now that the stress of the unexpected encounter had ebbed away Lance could recall the fine layer of black hair covering Keith's forearms. He guessed he never shaved them, probably never even considered it necessary like Lance did. Strangely, Lance didn't feel irritated at the thought, but rather wondered how much hair Keith had in other places, like his firm chest that was practically bursting from that tight black shirt he had on today.

'I wouldn't mind getting a glimpse of it, and his happy trail too,' Lance caught himself thinking and jerked his head around, suddenly anxious somebody could get a glimpse of his dirty mind.

"Okaaay, enough for today," he mumbled and after throwing his guilty reflection a chastising look, exited the bathroom. He could deal with it tomorrow when his head was clear.

"Don't tell me you've been sitting there since I left," was the first thing Hunk said when he returned to their room after a study session with Shay. His tone was so flat it wasn't even a question.

"Well, duh," Lance didn't turn away from his computer and clicked and scrolled through the pages as he spoke, "While you were busy brain-wooing your sweet Balmeran heartthrob-"

"Shay's not my heart-!"

"Yeah, right. So. As I was saying, while you were lending your helping hand elsewhere I did my own research," at this he finally spun around and faced Hunk, crossing his arms over his chest. He guessed his sour expression told Hunk all he needed to know about the results of the said 'research', but his friend still felt the need to ask.

"Sooo, you found anything good?" Lance grimaced.

"Loads, actually, just not about Keith's weird stunt."

Once he was wide awake and remembered his embarrassing and very much involuntary coming out the other night Lance decided to do the only right thing in this situation. And no, it wasn't going out of the room and finding Keith to talk it out like two mature human, or half-human, beings. It was quite the opposite, namely going on the Internet to look up all possibly relevant information about the Galra and their obscure culture.

He started out simple, typing in "10 things you need to know about Galra to not get in awkward situations", but apparently there was a lot more one needed to know because the top result was a link to the Galra-Human Code of Conduct. Intrigued, Lance clicked on it, hoping to get answers to all his questions, but was quickly disappointed to find pages and pages of legal text that covered pretty much anything except teenage Galra lying their way into unsuspecting peers' dorm rooms.

Then he decided to be more specific and tried "how to know a Galra has one against you", then "does half-Galra mean half-mean or double-mean". When this gave him nothing except a dozen accounts of some shady activist group's trials (seriously, who decided to give membership based on your body count) and a brief history of the Galra colonies in the Earth's solar system, Lance realised he had to look at the larger picture first. So he typed in "weird Galra traditions", and oh boy did it get him some really confusing and at times disturbing info. He cringed, remembering some of it.

"Hey, did you know Galra still have this coming-of-age thing when they send guys out into space, give them a list of planets as check points and let them fend for themselves for two months?"

"Wow, that sounds tough," Hunk pulled up his own chair and sat next to Lance.

"And you know what age they think is just right to go through this thing? Fifteen!" Lance pushed away from the desk and made an emphatic spin. "Dude I could barely survive a dinner at abuela's when I was fifteen, I had to literally fight off a dozen siblings to get a plateful, imagine fighting off some crazy alien monsters for two whole months!"

"That extraterrestrial flora and fauna course really got to you, didn't it," Hunk chuckled but shifted a little uncomfortably, probably remembering the lecture on Weblums they had, with pictures and a century old recordings. He almost didn't make it to the restroom to throw up afterwards. "Anyway, you think Keith had to do all this stuff?"

"I wouldn't be surprised. If he did, our training should feel like a walk in the park to him. Also, check this out," he scrolled through the site purposefully and Hunk had to lean in to get a better look at the small screen. Lance's laptop was what some would call antique, passed down from his father who had got it from his father who had bought it somewhere in the 2020s. Hunk offered to build him a holoscreen from the spare parts he and Pidge often tinkered with, but Lance declined, saying he liked the idea of looking up make-up tutorials on the little old-fashioned thing his father believed he was using strictly for studying purposes. Well, reading up on his alien crush's culture counted as studying in Lance's book alright.

"Here, look," Lance double clicked and Hunk couldn't help but cringe a little at the force he used on his ancient mouse. "That's some 'exclusive' footage from their last Kral Zera three years back-"

"Kral what?"

"Oh, it's like presidential election and inauguration ceremony rolled into one. But," and here Lance hit the 'Enter' button so hard Hunk feared it might just pop out; instead a video started playing, "they go from the Olympics opening ceremony straight to the Gladiator with laser guns and explosives in, like, five minutes."

Hunk squinted at the screen. The video was shaky, shot from a very awkward angle and from afar. It also appeared to be muted, or it was just Lance forgetting to unplug his earphones (another outdated contraption he insisted on using). Still, he managed to make out a pretty recognisable figure. "Hey, isn't that Emperor Lotor there, with the fabulous hair?"

"Yep," Lance nodded urging him to keep watching.

"Hah, he's really carrying a torch. And what's with that dude's outfit, is that a ca- Wha- Whoa! That escalated quickly," the screen was now flashing with bursts of flames that were swinging wildly as the camera-holder moved away to avoid getting hit but continued filming anyway. Lance paused the video, the action freezing on a heavily armoured Galra about to be annihilated with a huge blast coming his way.

"It's like they are born to be excessively volatile," he sighed.

"Well, I don't know, it's just an old tradition, and it's not like Keith resorts to violence at any given chance. I guess. Man, I hope he doesn't," Hunk looked troubled now.

"I'm not saying he does, but he was raised on this, probably watched it live huddled with his Galra buddies on the coach."

"Uh, yeah but if what you said about that Galra coming-of-age thing is true then he was deep in space at that time. You know, coming of age and stuff," Lance looked at him with an unimpressed scowl and Hunk rubbed his hands with a bashful grin, "Right, yeah, no. Not my point. What I wanna say is, Keith being Galra doesn't mean he will automatically share all of their views and traditions, he's got his own head on his shoulders. Plus, he's only half-Galra so at least one of his parents should be human. And didn't you say he grew up in a colony on Mars, from what I heard there are half as many humans living there as there are Galra, surely he had some positive, non-life-threatening influence throughout his childhood."

"Tell me that again when he challenges me to a duel or something," Lance huffed out stubbornly, picking at the cord of his table lamp.

"A duel, seriously."

"What, trial by combat is still an ongoing practice in courts on Daibazaal, I read this article where-"

"Lance," Hunk's tone made no room for arguments and he looked up with a defeated expression. "I'm sure it won't ever come to that, believe me. From what he told you about promises and happiness it seems to me he was just trying to be nice, or wishing you luck in the future, perhaps," Hunk sounded like he wanted to believe his own words but hadn't quiet got to that point himself. Lance didn't judge him. It was all so confusing.

"Maybe, I mean, I wish it was really that simple but- You've no idea if Galra can be, you know," he gestured vaguely to himself, but Hunk only cocked his head in confusion. "Um, open-minded? About stuff?" He didn't know if he was ready to say it out loud, even if Hunk already knew.

"Oh, you mean about- Right," he must've sensed Lance's uneasiness and let it slide, bless his soul. "Well if you ask me, I bet they don't really mind, cause have you seen Emperor Lotor?"

"I sure have," Lance smirked a little.

"Those fancy outfits, that poise, that hair," Hunk continued, wagging his eyebrows now, and Lance started giggling despite himself.

"You should've seen him hip throw a Galra twice his size just before he came out victorious," he sighed a bit dreamily.

"You have a type, don't you?"

"Wha- No, I don't!" Lance could swear he wasn't blushing. Only maybe he was. Just a little.

Sunday wasted on the Galra Weirdness Quest did little to prepare him to face Keith next week. They shared a few classes and the possibility that they might be forced to work together only made it scarier. On top of that, Lance wasn't too avid to find out if Keith had told others about his unconventional hobby. So he might have faked a bad cough and got a sick note from the nurse on Monday. The old lady was sceptical about it but his pale face and trembling voice (all result of the nerves) must've been enough to convince her.

This got him through Monday without incidents because he spent the day hiding in his room like a coward and begging Hunk to bring him something from the canteen to eat besides snacks. On Tuesday, however, they had a chemistry practical and if he didn't show up at the lab he was risking to fail the class. Anxiety or not, he had to go.

As it turned out, Keith didn't have the same inhibitions because even if it was one of the classes they had together, he wasn't there when Lance arrived. However, just as he thought he had lucked out for the day he got paired with James Griffin.

Now don't get him wrong, he didn't hate the guy. In fact, James was a pretty decent fellow, it was just that he had this mean streak about him which, Lance suspected, together with a fairly short temper spoke volumes about how he would likely react if he ever found out about Lance's secret or anything equally conflicting. Lance could easily see him casually throwing jeers and jabs at him, and not even out of some sort of malice but just because he didn't, wouldn't understand.

Of course, all that could be only Lance's tendency to overthink, but he couldn't help it, especially in the light of recent events.

Anyway, half of the experiment went without a hitch, the two of them working peacefully, except maybe for one or two of James' remarks to "watch it" and "make sure to stir this slowly, McClain, or so help me", oh and to "concentrate already or just let me handle it". And, well, Lance could guess where his lab partner's nervous irritation came from.

Last semester they were sent on a camping trip slash survival skills check-up and they were made to work in teams of three. Lance's team consisted of him, James and Ryan, and, to make a long story short, Lance was lucky to have the tall level-headed man out there in the desert with them, or they would've definitely failed because of Lance's constant fuck-ups and James' frustrated tantrums. Lance hated to admit it, but half of the times James had all the right to be mad at him, like that one time he was responsible for putting up a tent and hadn't tightened the ropes properly so the whole thing crashed on them in the middle of the night.

Ever since that trip things between them were kinda tense. Not bad exactly, but not anywhere near friendly either. That's why Lance was so apprehensive about them working together, and halfway into the class he realised he had a good reason to be. Something wasn't going right, their reaction mixture was looking nothing like the one they had seen during demonstration. James was starting to look twitchy and Lance felt he was doing his best not to start blaming him for a fault they'd obviously made along the way.

And as his ill fate would have it, it was in that moment that the door to the lab slid open and Keith went in, bowing curtly at the prof as was his Galra custom and extracting some kind of note from his backpack. Lance froze with a volumetric flask clutched tightly in his hand, watching Keith scan the room, probably looking for a group to join.

Then their eyes met and in a beat where Lance just stared at him like a deer caught in headlights Keith's face suddenly changed from neutrally focused to shocked and almost angry. The shift was so instant and so obvious it made Lance flinch involuntarily, which was a big mistake because his hand, inconveniently damp and trembling, lost its grip in the thin glass vial and it shattered right onto the table, splashing everything on it, and even getting on his coat and burning right trough.

The noise drew everybody's attention and once they realised what had happened there were worried gasps and shouts, and wild gesturing to the now steaming tabletop. The one who was shouting the loudest was their professor, trying to calm the students down and reach James and Lance to assess the damage and take necessary precautions.

After that everything went in a blur. Lance got his ear chewed out for disregarding safety measures while being ushered to the nurse's office as a few drops of the faulty solution had burned his left arm. There the nurse treated his light wound, chiding him and saying that he probably should've stayed in bed and treated his "bad cough" instead of going out there and mixing dangerous reactants. And damn, Lance totally agreed. The day was a disaster.

On Wednesday, thankfully, fighter pilots trained separately out on the grounds and Lance had some room to breathe, knowing that he wouldn't randomly run into Keith in the hallways. At least until lunch. And that was exactly where he was headed.

He and Hunk agreed to meet Pidge at the canteen to eat at their self-proclaimed table and catch up. Even though Lance barely saw her on a regular basis they became friends through Hunk. The two often hang out together, making and taking apart complicated mechanisms, and discussed it all in what was complete gibberish to Lance's ears. But he and Pidge also had some things in common that they managed to bond over, like retro video games that needed a technological miracle to get to work on any state of the art computer. Or early 2000s films with cheap special effects that were so bad you dint know what you wanted to do more - laugh or cry. Oh and gossip.

Every time the three of them had lunch Lance and Pidge started by exchanging news and rumours they accumulated in the time apart. Seriously, Pidge was like an intel warlord, she always had the juiciest stories up her sleeve and seemed to know everything about everyone. As for Lance, he liked offering his own insight or making up wild theories about people's reasoning. What could he say, he had a vivid imagination.

Hunk didn't approve of their little tradition, saying that discussing other people's business behind their backs was not nice. But he listened to them nonetheless, gasping "no way"s and "really"s too many times to be truly against it. He didn't usually offer any gossip himself though, and that was why his sudden question startled Lance so much he almost choked on his juice.

"Hey, Pidge, you heard anything about Keith? You know, half-Galra fighter pilot?" his tone was light but Lance knew better and sent him a what-the-fuck-are-you-doing-man glare across the table. But Hunk ignored him.

"Kogane Keith?" Pidge looked up from her pasta, clearly surprised Hunk asked about someone in such a straight-forward way. Last time he was curious about Shay he kept beating about for ten minutes before finally getting to the point. "Yeah, I mean, who hasn't, he's like a superstar here, beats every record set by the best pilots who ever studied at the Academy, even back in the day when it was all military. Says something about the Galra training program, right? He's not so great at languages and social studies, I saw him struggle at Montgomery's seminar last week, it was hilarious-,"

"Bad at communication, huh?" Hunk visibly perked up at that and Lance was now silently praying he wasn't going to tell her everything about what had happened. Everything about him. He was so tense he felt like a string ready to snap. "Okay, so, tell me, what do you think he'd do- Hypothetically, if he had something against one of the students?"

Lance pointedly didn't look at any of them, choosing to tear up a napkin and suddenly very engrossed in the way one layer of pressed tissue separated from the other as he pulled.

"What do you mean? If somebody pissed him off or something?"

"Yeah, like, would he go plotting to get them in trouble?" Lance mentally tried to shrink while listening to every word with rapt interest.

"Plotting? Hah, no I doubt that. From what I heard he's got a short temper and is more about actions than words, if someone messed with him he'd likely just knock them out straight away. I'm not sure he'd even think to take it easy on the girls, you know how tough Galra females are? Shiro told Matt how he once was in a meeting with the colonies districts reps from Mars and all of them were-,"

"Wait, hold on!" Lance almost shrieked, never able to control his volume when he was on edge. He immediately realised his mistake and blushed a little but continued. "Ahem, you said, you said Shiro? That Shiro?"

"If you mean Captain Shirogane then yes," Pidge was way too chill while saying something so utterly mind-blowing.

"Don't tell me you know him personally," Lance asked but could see from her expression that she wasn't lying. And, most importantly, didn't get what big a deal it was.

"Yeah, he and Matt worked together with my dad before they started at the Embassy, he comes by for dinner from time to time. Why?" Lance gaped and Hunk chuckled.

"Didn't you know that Lance is Shiro's biggest fanb-mh," what was it with Hunk today, he was too talkative for his own good. How convenient Lance had long limbs, so he could bend over the table and clap his big mouth shut real fast.

"Wait, really?" but not fast enough, and now Pidge got this glint in her eyes that promised pain and suffering from ruthless teasing and humiliation. "Do you want me to introduce you?" she sing-songed.

Lance glared.

"Oh he so does," Hunk chimed in, speaking over his palm.

"Does he have posters?"

"He hides them in the bottom drawer under his socks."

"How do you-," now they were both snickering at him. "You know what, I'm out of here," he quickly snatched up his tray and started towards the exit. He'd finish his meal side-dished with wounded pride in solitude.

Apparently, Lance's cruel fate had other plans for him in store because one moment he was marching purposefully away from the table of traitors and the next he smashed into someone's solid back, sending the remains of his lunch flying in all directions and landing on himself and the unfortunate person he ran into. Which turned out to be James. Just great.

"McClain, you again!" oh boy, he looked furious. It must be his half-eaten panna cotta that was currently sliding off his head to plop onto his left shoulder and continue downwards all across the front of his uniform vest. Not that Lance felt any better on the floor covered in a layer of tomato sauce and juice. "You just keep ruining everything for me, don't you?"

"H-hey, James, I didn't see you, I'm sor-," the angry boy didn't let him finish, yanking him up by the lapels of his equally ruined vest.

"Sorry my ass! You're a walking disaster, no surprise we failed because of you. You can never get anything right and I'll be damned if I'll ever be your partner in anything ever again!" he finished as loudly as he started and pushed Lance back so hard he stumbled and fell on his ass again. It hurt, but not as much as James' words. He knew he was clumsy and absent-minded sometimes but that didn't mean he couldn't work in a team-

Loud clatter from the side sounded like thunder in the hushed silence, and Lance turned in time to see a stormy-looking Keith walking towards them with firm determination. He didn't get to wonder why that was because the half-Galra spoke addressing James.

"Take that back," his voice was dangerously low, almost resembling a growl, and Lance felt a shiver of excitement run down his spine. He quickly scrambled to his feet, realising he kept sitting on the dirty floor like a fool.

"No way!" James whined, rubbing at his uniform and only making it worse. "He brought it upon himself. In fact, it's your fault too, if you didn't show up then like you own the place, we could've worked it out, but now because of this good for nothing-"

"Take that back, you scum!" Keith all but roared and lunged at James with such speed and force Lance missed the moment his fist connected with James' jaw and only registered what had happened when he crumbled to the ground, clutching the side of his face in pain and disbelief. People around gasped and shouted, some stood up and the scraping of chairs and stomping of feet mixed into a panicked chaos. What was more horrifying, however, was that Keith never stopped and kneed James in the stomach hard enough to make him start coughing so badly Lance feared he might loose his lunch.

"You don't deserve him, you pathetic wimp," Keith spat out, readying for another punch and Lance realised he had to interfere because James already didn't look so good.

"K-Keith, hey, b-buddy," stupid stutter. "Calm down, will you?" Of course he could barge in and try to stop him by force but seeing how he had just knocked down James, a much fitter guy than him, Lance knew how little his chances were. Surprisingly, Keith listened, well, at least he paused to glance at him, but once his eyes fell on his face he visibly cringed and turned back to a still panting James who was standing up with great difficulty.

"You're a fucking psycho," he wheezed and tried to get Keith with a right hook but Keith blocked it easily, hitting James in the side instead, which sent him crashing into the table. People gathered around but didn't try to help and Lance felt useless, trapped there with the two fighting boys and unable to do a thing to stop this madness. James was right, he really wasn't good for anything.

Suddenly the crowd of onlookers parted and Ryan came forth, followed by Nadia and Ina. Together the four of them managed to seize Keith and pull him off James who didn't protest much at this point. They were just in time too because then the campus security arrived, and they were all escorted to the principal's office.

And by them all Lance meant Keith, James and himself, because apparently he looked equally involved in the commotion since he was also dirty and guilty-looking. However, when Principal Sanda asked what had caused the fight Lance was genuinely lost because he had no idea. So he decided to say what he did know.

"I ran into James, by accident of course, and he wasn't happy-"

"Who would be!"

"Mr. Griffin!"

"Sorry, ma'am."

"Did you start the fight?" the principal asked James sternly.

"No! It was the crazy Galra!"

"That's enough, Mr. Griffin!"

"He's telling the truth, I started it," Lance looked at Keith in shock. He never thought Keith would just state it like that. "I started it and I am ready to face the consequences."

As weird and unpleasant as the situation was Lance couldn't help but admire Keith's courage and directness. He readily took the blame and didn't try to get out of punishment like James did. Well, technically Keith was the one at fault, but James acted like a jerk too so Lance wouldn't feel bad if he got some sort of penalty out of it too.

"And do you care to explain, Mr. Kogane, what was the reason for your aggression?" the way she spoke suggested she was ready to listen to Keith's point of view but if that meant she would be willing to let them off the hook Lance couldn't tell.

"He said some unacceptable things and I couldn't just stand by," as he was talking Keith was looking straight ahead of him, as if he was reporting the results of some mission to a higher-in-command. His brows were furrowed a little and his jaw was tense. He looked so confident, so handsome, Lance couldn't tear his gaze away.

"What things might those be?" Principal Sanda pressed him to continue.

"Things that on Daibazaal would be enough for me to challenge him to a fight to the death," so passionate- wait, what?

"I didn't say anything like that!" James seemed to share Lance's bewilderment, but Keith didn't offer any further explanation and the principal let out a deep sigh. She clearly didn't want to get involved in a cross-cultural conflict. That was why she didn't invite other officials or the student panel. The fact that Keith had a Galra lineage and chose to study at the Galaxy Garrison Academy added a lot to its prestige and illustrated successful galra-human integration. Of course, it was in everybody's interests that it all stayed that way.

"Well, we are not on Daibazaal, and not even on Mars, so you will have to learn to control yourself if you want to continue your education here," Keith's hands, clenched in tight fists on his sides, twitched, then he briefly looked at Lance, catching his confused stare, and finally nodded.

"I am ready to answer for my actions."

"Good. And to help you get over your differences and learn to communicate with words for a change, you two will keep Mr. Kogane company while he serves his detention," she looked at Lance and then at James.

"What! But I didn't-!"

"You will be getting your tasks and reporting to Mr. Iverson till the end of next week. That is all," and just like that they were dismissed.

Once they exited the principal's office, James stormed off, grumbling to himself and probably cursing Lance and Keith under his breath, and the two of them stayed in the corridor alone. It was very awkward. Wanting to say something to dispel the heavy silence, Lance opened his mouth, but Keith was faster.

"I am sorry," he said, sincere remorse shining in his pretty eyes. Lance was so weak for those.

"Uh, don't worry, won't be my first detention," when Keith was looking at him like that he was ready to forgive him for anything.

"No, I mean your engagement, I ruined a sacred bond. I shouldn't have come into your room that day," Keith looked positively heart-broken, like he accidentally kicked Lance's puppy or something. No, wait.

"My what?"

"It was Griffin, wasn't it?" Keith's cheeks were flushed red, and if Lance didn't know better he would think he was about to cry. Only, actually, he did not know better, he barely knew Keith at all and lately his behaviour had got more and more confusing. But Lance was sure of one thing - he hated seeing Keith sad, whatever was the cause.

"Griffin's an ass, but you get used to it," Keith blinked at him, obviously not getting it. "Uh, not you specifically, but like, everybody knows he doesn't mean it when he says all these things."

"Was he verbally abusing you?"

"Abusing m- No! Nothing like that, he just mouths people off when he's irritated I guess, we don't really hang out that much. I think the last time I spoke to him more than a couple of words was like a month ago. Well, aside from chemistry yesterday. You know, he's got his group of friends and I've got mine and I-," Lance was rambling, he knew it but he couldn't stop himself. Keith did it for him though.

"If it wasn't him then who was it?"

"Who was what?" was Lance being slow or was it Keith speaking in riddles?

"The one who stopped courting you."

"No one was courting me," Lance said automatically, not fully getting the meaning of the words. Because they were making zero sense. "Why would somebody court me? I'm not a princess," he said before he thought and then felt his face burn in immediate embarrassment.

Keith was no better though, with a heavy scowl and his mouth hanging slightly open, like he was processing something big and super complicated in his head and it was coming up 'Error Error Error'.

"But you were- your- you had-," he muttered quietly, staring at him, then shook his head, barked out "Forget it!" and stomped away, leaving Lance in the dark yet again.