The next day there's a bit of a time crunch in getting to practice since his dad's car is in the shop and his mom has a night shift and his sister has to get picked up from swim lessons and basically, Lance is dropped off at the dojo almost an hour before practice. Even the senseis don't get there that early. There is literally no one there, and no way for him to get in, and it is hot and there is no shade and he is dying. He makes himself as comfortable as he can sitting on one of those cement bunkers meant to stop cars from pulling in too far but which are more typically used by skateboarders. He fans himself, considering taking off his undershirt because while Pidge gives him crap about his "noodle arms" (still capable of throwing a guy, so what is she talking about?) and his lack of an obvious six-pack when he is shirtless, it might just be worth it to feel a little cooler. On second thought, no. Because he'd still be hot without his shirt, and also then the Galra dojo girls would see that he wasn't totally ripped and laugh at him too and he just couldn't handle that. Lance miserably thought of the nice abs pretty much every other guy must have. Hunk, Matt, Lotor, Shiro-sensei, Coran-sensei, Kolivan-sensei, definitely Zarkon-sensei- you could tell that much even when the guy was wearing his gi, danggit- and Keith. Goddamn Keith. Who was apparently a flirt who had even put moves on Lance's best friends. So not cool.
Lance is still in the parking lot waiting when he hears footsteps and looks up to see the group from the Galra dojo running (yes running) to practice. Somehow, none of them are sweating, and it just makes Lance feel all the more like a disgusting mess. He should just wait til Hunk's ride gets here, tell them he's feeling sick and ask them to take him home. Stupid summer training camp.
Except if he went home now he'd get that much less time to check out the Galra girls in their running outfits. Narti's muscles are even more apparent, and Ezor is just cute as always and Zethrid looks less like a bear and more like a girl who is actually kinda pretty in a weird way, and the booty on Acxa is enough to make Lance believe there's gotta be a god of some sort out there, because wow. And of course Lotor totally outshines them all, somehow that was a given, and Lance should just give up on life already because he has clearly lost and Lotor has totally won.
"Why are you waiting out here in this heat?" Zethrid asks, and Lance is a little grateful to her for acknowledging that yes the current temperature is obscenely high.
"Dojo's not open yet," Lance mumbled miserably.
"Huh, I guess we are a bit early," Zarkon-sensei grunts.
"I told you the pace was too fast," Haggar-sensei hisses. She only ever seems to hiss, rather than actually speak. It makes her even more intimidating.
"If they cannot run at that pace then they are too weak to be here," Zarkon-sensei replies. Everything these two do terrifies Lance and makes him so glad he doesn't train at the Galra dojo.
"There he goes again," Lotor huffs, his eyes showing just a hint of displeasure. Lance is shocked. He thought Lotor was always Mr. Affability. "Dad is always about being the best. The only reason he suggested this program was so he could spy on the Voltron dojo."
"Why would he want to do that?" Lance asks.
He gets scoffed at by all of Lotor's crew.
"Do you seriously not know how prestigious your dojo is?" Acxa asks.
"Well, I know some medal-winning judoka have trained here before but-" Lance stops as he sees everyone shaking their heads pityingly.
"For years the Voltron dojo was top-ranked. All the best judoka came from here. Alfor-sensei was considered one of the greats. Until about 10 years ago when Zarkon-sensei started this program. He did use it to learn training methods like he claimed, but he also used it as a chance to recruit some of the dojo's judoka and some of the best senseis. Those he couldn't recruit, he sabotaged. He still does, to a certain extent," Acxa informs him.
"As a matter of fact, your Shiro-sensei was one he recruited," Lotor says. "He trained with us for a couple of years but ultimately decided to return to the Voltron dojo. Mom was furious that he left us behind."
"And no wonder," Zethrid says. "Shiro-sensei is strong, and a good teacher. Haggar-sensei is right to respect his abilities, and Zarkon-sensei is foolish to disagree and claim that Shiro-sensei will never surpass him."
"Ugh, all this talk about politics is super duper bo-ring," Ezor complains. "Why don't we talk about something else? Like the way you look at Keeeiith?" Ezor perches on the block next to Lance and leans in close. He wonders how she can stand to do so, since he's sweated up a flood since he got here and probably smells like a dumpster. And it's not like she's upwind of him or something, since there. Is. No. Breeze.
"You mean with utter loathing?" Lance manages to choke out after a long moment of shocked silence.
"Oh! He hesitated!" Ezor sing-songs.
"I did not! I was just too surprised to answer!"
Narti makes a motion that looks something akin to swimming. No one translates, and Lance suspects it wasn't actual sign language, but a pantomime of swimming in De Nile.
"Okay, but really! How could I not hate Keith?" Lance protests, trying to defend himself. "The guy is-"
"Charming?" Acxa suggests.
"Buff?" Zethrid inputs.
"Dreamy?" Ezor gushes.
"Perfect?" Lotor smirks.
Lance chooses to ignore them all, and also Narti dramatically fanning herself and swooning as a pantomime of her opinion. At least, he's pretty sure that's what she's doing. It may be hot, but it's not THAT hot, is it?
"-contemptuous, infuriating, obstreperous, conceited, arrogant, a complete asshole?" Lance finishes. "Take your pick, I've got more."
"Sounds like someone's got a bone to pick with Keith," Lotor says idly.
"Please. More like a full skeleton," Lance snarls back. He really does not like this topic. Both the person being discussed, and the fact that they are discussing him.
"He didn't seem all that bad to me," Acxa says.
"Yeah, well you haven't known him as long as I have. You just met the guy yesterday. He always has to one-up people, he has to be the best at everything, nothing anyone else does is ever good enough in his eyes, he's rude, and I am just so sick of him!" Lance snaps. He's so fired up that he doesn't notice that a car has finally pulled into the lot and parked until he hears the sound of keys in the lock of the dojo's door. He turns and sees Keith pulling open the door to the dojo, holding Shiro's keys. He barely hears Lotor's comment that Lance's description of Keith sounds more like Zarkon-sensei, because he is too busy staring at Keith as he returns to Shiro's car. Keith who almost definitely heard him just now.
"Lance, come help us with these!" Shiro calls, and Lance notices that Shiro is hefting some water jugs out of his car. Lance obediently toddles over to the vehicle, telling himself that if his face is red, it's only from the heat. After all, why should he care if Keith heard what he said? It's not like it was a lie or anything. If Keith's feelings got hurt, so what? The truth hurts. Like a bitch.
They take the jugs over to a tap to fill them up while the Galra dojo students head on inside. Shiro fetches a wagon while Lance and Keith fill the first jug in stony silence. Even after Shiro comes back and they wrestle the full jug onto it, they don't make eye contact. Yeah, Keith definitely heard. And for some reason, that makes Lance feel guilty.
x
Practice is Hell. Keith can't focus at all. During warm-ups he falls on his face. Once they actually get to work there's no power in his throws or his matwork. To make matters worse, they do a "machine gun" drill, where everyone takes turns standing at the edge of a crash pad and throwing everyone one at time, and he and Lance end up at the same crash pad. When it's Lance's turn to throw, Keith vows to keep his eyes closed the whole time he's being thrown, but his eyes end up snapping open in midair, and he catches a glimpse of Lance's face as he completes the throw, and for a moment it almost looks apologetic. But Keith looks away before he can see enough to be certain. He doesn't know which would make him feel worse: a Lance who doesn't feel any remorse or a Lance that does. Later, when it's Keith's turn to throw, he ends up off-balancing himself rather than Lance. He probably looks like a white belt in their first week of practice rather than someone who has achieved the rank of second dan. He should be humiliated, but Lance's words keep echoing in his head too much for him to care.
He knows the senseis all notice, and he can see them looking at him with concern. The Voltron dojo senseis at least. The Galra dojo senseis have a malicious glee in their eyes when they look at the way he is today. He has to be careful during water breaks, since they all seek him out and he just doesn't want to talk to them. But of course there's no avoiding Shiro during the ride home.
"You feeling okay?" Shiro asked.
"Mm," Keith offers noncommittally.
"Answer me Keith. Otherwise I'm gonna tell my mom and you know that rather than waiting for an actual answer she's just gonna start lavishing on the care. So unless you want to be on a soup diet and have her put twelve hot water bottles in your bed and be coddled like an infant, I suggest you fess up."
"Do you think I think I have to be the best at everything?" Keith asks.
"That's not an answer. I want an answer."
"And so do I. Do I?"
"Well you can be a bit competitive…"
"Shiiiiiroooo."
"I think it's more like you're afraid of not being the best? Like you think you aren't good enough unless you're the best. Or that people will hate you if you're not the best."
"Yeah well maybe some people hate me if I am," Keith mumbles. Not quietly enough, because Shiro overhears.
"You can't please everyone, Keith," he sighs. He reaches over with his right hand and ruffles Keith's hair before returning his hand to the steering wheel.
"I don't want to please everyone. Just… just some," Keith whispers.
"Well I'll have you know that I, for one don't hate you. Mom and Dad too. And the other senseis like you as well. I promise you're not hated."
Keith keeps quiet this time. He doesn't need a fight with Shiro on top of everything else.
"Anything else bugging you?" Shiro asks after a moment.
"Well… am I rude?" Keith asks.
Shiro laughs, the jerk.
"You can be. But so can we all. You're a lot better than some people I've met."
"And a lot worse than most, huh?" Keith huffs.
"No. Really," Shiro assures him. "I'd say you're probably about average. No ruder than most but not much nicer either. And honestly, people who are much nicer are pretty rare."
"Hm," Keith hums.
"Anything else?"
"Not that you can do anything about. Thanks for caring, Shiro. But there are some things I have to do on my own and what's bugging me right now is probably one of them."
"Probably?"
"Definitely."
"Okay. If you say so. But if you keep having practices like today, I will go through with my threat to get Mom involved."
"I'm sure you will, which is the scary part," Keith mutters to his window. But there is the slightest smile on his face as he says it.
x
Day three of the Galra dojo's visit has them arriving at the dojo to discover a broken AC. Even with the doors open, it's still stifling, and the only moving air is the breathing of the various judoka. In a fit of mercy, the senseis decide to do a conditioning day without gis. Though if you ask Lance, it can hardly be called mercy, since they've done far too many push-ups (various kinds of push-ups and not just judo push-ups), sit-ups, burpees, ultimate burpees, dragonflies, running, jumping, and generally slowly trying to kill everyone there for it to be truly merciful. Lance knows for a fact that he's gonna be sore tomorrow. And even with water breaks every other drill, he still notices a yellow tint to everything that is one of the early signs of dehydration, and the burpees make him lightheaded. He sees a vague look on Hunk's face, and Matt has stumbled a few times, and a few kids have even dared to sit down, and he knows they are all being pushed to the brink. Even the Galra dojo kids are pouring sweat and look actually tired for once, and like everyone else, they've shed as much clothing as can be considered decent.
As they do a shuffled circuit around the mats, Lance finds himself keeping pace with the person next to him since the world feels ever so slightly hazy. Because he's so out of it, he almost doesn't notice that the person in question is Keith. He opens his mouth to apologize for what he said yesterday, because as much as he hates to admit it, he does feel bad. Especially since it seemed to affect Keith a lot. Lance had spent most of his time after practice last night insisting to himself that it could have been anything wrong with Keith, maybe he ate something that disagreed with him or had a cramp or something, but finally, before bed, he acknowledged that maybe he'd been a bit harsh.
Before Lance can apologize however, Shiro calls another water break, and tells them to take a full fifteen minutes so the senseis can set up some electric fans that Coran-sensei went to get. Lance hadn't even noticed Coran-sensei was gone. Everyone stops moving immediately, except Lance because he is just that out of it. He immediately collides with Keith, and falls down in a sweaty heap. He blinks, trying to make the yellow fade, and almost misses the hand being offered to him. He takes it, allowing Keith to help him up.
"Sonks," he says, trying to say both sorry and thanks at the same time. Though he's not sure if he even manages that, since his hearing is a bit weird at the moment and everything sounds really far away. He manages to keep his gait straight as he heads over to where he left his stuff and leans against the wall, sliding down it before rooting around for his water bottle. It isn't there.
Before Lance can panic, his water bottle is shoved into his hand.
"Here," Pidge's voice says from both near and far. "I refilled it for you."
Lance makes a vague noise in lieu of thanks and begins to greedily gulp down water. He's glad the water break is a long one, since it will take time for the new hydration to enter his system. Once he's taken in enough that his stomach is sloshing uncomfortably as if there's a wave pool in there, he pauses, and looks around.
"You did eat something before practice, right?" Pidge asks, and he nods, idly noting Kolivan-sensei heading their way with a fan. And over there is Keith, who he still needs to apologize to, and Lance IS NOT noticing Keith's nice abs (no really, he's not, because Pidge is right next to him and he knows for sure she will notice him noticing and waggle her eyebrows at him and tell Hunk who will also waggle his eyebrows at Lance and the two of them will rib him about it until the end of eternity, because they still tease him about pretty much every crush he's had since even before he actually knew either of them). He's thinking of trying to regain his feet even though he knows it's a bad idea to be upright or in motion just yet thanks to some past experiences, but he needs to go apologize to Keith, when his dehydration-fueled tunnel vision widens out and he finally realizes that Keith is not alone, he is once again with that one Galra dojo group. He doesn't know how he missed them before, since Lotor in particular is practically hanging all over Keith for god knows what reason, though could there even be any reason whatsoever given that they are all sweaty and overheated and in a room that might as well be Death Valley it is so hot? And he notices that all the girls keep glancing his way, and they must have seen him staring. Lance flushes in embarrassment. He is so lame. Still, if anyone says anything about it, he can claim that since he was dehydrated he was just staring into space and not honing in on Keith.
"Since you're in no state to move, should I invite them to come over here?" Pidge asks evilly, and he realizes she has asked him more questions since asking if he ate anything, and he has completely failed to answer her. What a disastrous mistake.
"Shut up. I'm just a little tired."
"And dehydrated?"
"And dehydrated. Speaking of which, how are you not?"
"There are some small advantages to the fact that my body hates me," Pidge says.
"Oh. Cramps?"
"Yup. I mentioned it to Shiro-sensei and he got all red and told me to sit today out and help them make sure everyone stays hydrated. But like, it does legit hurt, I'm not just bullshitting this one."
"Allura-sensei's painkillers aren't strong enough for you?" Lance asks sympathetically.
"Not by a long-shot," Pidge replies. "I'd make myself a hot water bottle to clutch since that tends to help, but…" Pidge trails off and makes a sort of general sweeping gesture, and Lance knows that she is referring to the sheer heat that is already suffocating them all.
"I'm sorry you have to go through that," he tells her.
"Well, when it's this bad, it only seems to last a day so I should be fine tomorrow at least. I'm just glad the senseis are so understanding about it. My PE teacher last year would have me doing twice as much as the rest of you because he insists exercise helps with cramps, even though it really doesn't."
"Let me guess: Iverson?"
"Yup."
"I had that guy for PE before. He's a complete nutjob, yeah? Out to kill all his students by running them into the ground. Both literally and figuratively."
"So I noticed."
Lance drinks some more water and stands up slowly, trying to get himself ready to resume practice when the break ends. When it finally does end, he sighs heavily, and makes it his goal for today to not pass out.