A/N: Hey all! Here is the next installment of Tales from the Sounding Board!

I know that I've been focusing on Keith/Lance, but I've been debating...Since this focuses on Shiro as the "sounding board", I want to write him giving advice to other people. Pidge, for one. Opinions?

Thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited, and followed!

Enjoy!


Shiro looked up as Hunk crashed down beside him on the sofa with an enormous bowl of popcorn. "What are you - no," he said shortly.

Hunk adopted a fake-hurt look. "What? I just want to watch something. Maybe there's some good alien TV on."

"I know that's not what you're doing." Seeing Pidge enter the room, closely followed by Coran and Allura, Shiro sighed. "We are not watching Lance and Keith. It's rude, and an invasion of privacy. I'm sure there's something much more interesting."

"Nah, not being able to understand TV shows kind of takes away from the fun of watching them," Pidge commented. She draped herself across Shiro and Hunk, flicking a hand towards the screens as she did so. "Plus, Lance and Keith are much more interesting."

"Yes, Coran and I have been asleep so long they don't even show reruns of shows we used to watch." Allura sat down in front of the couch, leaning against Shiro's legs. "Anyway. I think it is very important for me to determine how well my paladins are getting on with each other. I must keep track of the 'state of the union', as it were."

Shiro fixed Pidge with a stern look. "I told you not to spend all your time watching old movies. Or bootlegging them."

"It's not a movie! It's the United States, and - "

"Shush! Your camera found them!" Hunk interrupted.

"Your - Pidge, did you set a camera to follow them around?!"

The girl shrugged, not apologetic in the least. "I think one of them may have figured out that I hacked into the cameras and told the other one. What choice did I have?"

Shiro felt it was prudent to not enlighten her that it had been him that had informed both parties in question of the camera hack.

"It seems they're in the training room again," Allura commented. "I do hope Keith doesn't collapse again."

"I spoke to him about that. He won't do it again." Shiro shifted Pidge's legs to a more comfortable position, if such a thing were possible. "I think it freaked Lance out too. He's been very mother hen-ish lately."

"Good. Someone has to keep that boy in shape." Reaching for Hunk's bowl of popcorn, Coran turned to face the screen. "Wait...what are they doing?"

Pidge abruptly jumped off Shiro's legs, kicking him in the process. "I think the gladiator malfunctioned!"

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The morning had begun badly for Keith. First, he'd accidentally smacked his head into the wall of his bed, forgetting that he had a bed and not just a couch in a shack in the desert. Once he'd finally gotten over that trauma, he had discovered that his clothes had gone missing somehow, and had had to go searching for something to wear. That something had turned into a spare set of Lance's clothes (apparently, the castle could only re-create things it knew. So, no clothes other than what they had come in with), since Lance was the closest to his size. Pidge was too short, Hunk was built completely differently, and Shiro was much broader. Now he was stuck matching Lance. Which normally would not have been a bad thing, but their half-there relationship had been weird lately. Lance wouldn't look at him at all, and Keith didn't know why.

Breakfast had been just as bad. Hunk had decided to experiment with alien foodstuffs again, and for once, it had turned out awful. The other six people on the ship had gotten to the food before him, and all that was left was the dry cereal that never, ever, became any softer. Allura had regretfully informed him that there was nothing she could do - it would take the castle several hours to manufacture more food, as that was not a priority. He'd wound up sticking to the alien coffee hanging around the kitchen, which had tasted awful.

He figured his day would start looking up once he headed over to the training deck. No such luck.

"What are you doing here?" he asked Lance bluntly.

The blue paladin simply stared at him. "I live here too. I can use the training deck."

"You know I always come here at this time every day. Why are you following me?" Internally, Keith was shouting at himself. He liked Lance. Why was he shooting himself in the foot? According to Shiro, he always did that, but he'd never really noticed it until now. "Can't you find some other time to train?"

"I can, but then you might get yourself killed!" Lance shouted back. "You nearly killed yourself of exhaustion last week! Why would I let you train yourself?"

"We're all adults! I think I can train on my own!"

"No, you're a foolhardy idiot who can't take care of himself!" The blue paladin's face was flushed. "And yes, I heard Shiro yelling at you."

Keith rolled his eyes and headed over to the gladiator. "I'm training. Don't interfere."

"If you look like you're about to collapse, then yeah, I'm going to interfere." Lance sat himself down on a bench at the side of the room and crossed his arms. "Go ahead."

Giving the other paladin a glare, Keith did just that.

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The pair took turns over the course of the day. Lance refused to allow Keith to train for more than half an hour at a time, instead forcing him to take a break. Neither of them noticed the camera hanging around in the corner of the room.

Finally, it was beginning to reach the point where they were both making simple mistakes, and Lance called for the gladiator to stop. Only...it didn't.

"What did you do, mullet-head?" Lance shouted, carefully aiming for the gladiator's head.

Keith bristled. "I didn't do anything! You're the one who sparred last!"

"Yeah, well, I didn't do anything, so it must have been you!" Ducking the gladiator's sharp sword, Lance rolled across the floor and popped up back-to-back with the red paladin. "What setting is it on?"

"Again, you were the last one to use it, how would I know?!"

Lance's face turned pale. "I set it to level eight."

"You - " Keith dodged the gladiator's swing and attempted to land his own. "I didn't know you were able to fight at that high of a level!"

"Gee, thanks! I'm not sure if I should feel honored or insulted, but I'm leaning towards insulted!" The blue paladin swiped a hand across his forehead, trying to get the sweat out of his eyes. "Watch your back!"

"Thanks."

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The pair finally made it behind a bench, which offered some protection from the gladiator. "What now?" Lance asked, panting.

Keith ran a hand through his sweaty hair, trying to think. "I'm...I'm not sure. Last time it malfunctioned we were able to send it out through the airlock, but I don't think we can do that again."

"We really have to get Pidge to take a look at it. This keeps happening." Lance shifted, his hand now uncomfortably close to Keith's. "I have an idea. I'll distract it, you hit the panel on the back of its head."

"No, Lance, you're going to get yourself - " Keith sighed. "Killed."

Lance darted out from behind the bench, waving his gun in the air. "Yo! Ugly!"

Keith watched with fear as the gladiator turned to face the other paladin. He quickly pulled his hair into a short ponytail in an attempt to keep it out of his face. Taking a deep breath, he snuck out and tiptoed towards the gladiator, putting all thought of Lance out of his mind. There was no reason to waste Lance's distraction, and he really had to concentrate.

On the other side of the gladiator, Lance was fighting for his life. His gun wasn't much use in a close-quartered fight, and it was all he could do to dodge the gladiator's swings. He caught a glimpse of Keith and his breath caught in his throat. Having his hair back made Keith more attractive - not that he dislike the mullet, despite all his complaints to the contrary. Lance shook his head to try to clear it. He had to concentrate now. This was the only way to attempt to get the two of them out of here in one piece.

Keeping behind the gladiator was proving to be easier said than done. Keith bit his lip to keep from exclaiming his frustration. Lifting his sword a touch, he watched closely as the gladiator approached Lance. He would only have one chance and he couldn't waste it. This was their only chance.

As soon as the gladiator took a step inside the mental perimeter Keith had drawn around it, he struck. He launched himself towards the robot, his sword hitting just the right spot on its back. The gladiator collapsed as though its strings were cut and Keith held himself back from shouting in victory. It was only then that he realized he'd been just seconds too late. "Lance!"

The other paladin sat on the ground, his hands wrapped around his ankle. "I'm fine, mullet head," he said, a pained smile spreading itself across his face.

"No, you're not." Keith knelt down beside him, setting his bayard on the floor. "What happened?"

"The gladiator just tripped me a bit. No big deal." Despite his words, Lance's eyes squinted in pain as Keith ran gentle hands along his leg. "Look, I just need a bit of help getting over to the pods - "

The doors to the training room slid open and the other five inhabitants of the castle tumbled in. "Are you okay?" Shiro asked above Pidge and Hunk's worried voices.

"I think he broke his ankle." Keith turned to face his brother, concern etched across his face. "The gladiator went berserk."

"Yeah, we saw - " Hunk fell silent as Pidge dug a sharp elbow into his side. "We figured."

Keith's gaze narrowed, but he chose to ignore the slip, instead focusing his attention back on Lance. "Can you stand?"

"If you help me, I think I can." Lance grabbed Keith's hand and the red paladin helped pull him to his feet - well, foot.

"Let's get to the healing pods. There's no reason for you to be in pain for longer than you need to." Wrapping an arm around Lance's Keith-free side, Shiro pointed them in the direction of the door.

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Keith rested his elbows on his crossed knees, anxiously watching Lance asleep in his pod. The sound of metal scraping against metal made him look to the side. "What, Shiro?"

His brother folded himself on the ground beside him. "He wouldn't want you to worry about him this much."

"I shouldn't have let him hurt himself like that. He shouldn't have been the distraction. I should've." Dropping his head into his hands, he groaned. "I had the close-range weapon, I should've been the distraction and him the sharpshooter."

"There are plenty of could've's, should've's, and would've's. But you two did the best you could under the circumstances and you can't beat yourself up about it." Shiro slid a finger beneath his brother's chin, forcing him to look up. "You have to tell him how you feel."

"I can't."

"You can. And you have to. I know you think you can live without having relationships to anyone, but you can't. He likes you, Keith. And I know you like him back." Fixing him with a stern look, Shiro continued, "You have to tell him."

"Tell me what?" Both brothers looked up to see that Lance had dropped from the pod and was now standing in front of them. "Seriously, what do you have to tell me?"

"N-nothing. It's nothing." Keith shot his brother a glare warning him to keep his mouth shut. "Are you okay?"

"Yep, good as new!" Lance wiggled his foot before stopping to stand in front of the red paladin. "Now what were you going to tell me?"

"I told you, nothing!"

"It wasn't nothing, you're all nervous!"

"You can't tell when I'm nervous!"

"Yes I can! You -"

Shiro decided that enough was enough. If these two wouldn't figure things out on their own, it seemed like he would have to force them to get moving. "You two -"

"Lance! You're awake!" Allura raced into the room, the others hot on her heels. "How's your ankle?"

"Good as new," Lance replied absently. His gaze was still glued to Keith's face.

Pidge opened her mouth, presumably to make a comment about Lance's lack of flirting, but Shiro's hand on her shoulder made her rethink the comment. "Are you hungry?"

"Yeah, I could go for some food." Tearing his eyes from the red paladin, Lance headed in the direction of the door. "Coming, Keith?"

Keith's eyes widened. "Um...sure."

"Let's all go!" Hunk exclaimed. He didn't seem to see the annoyed expression on Lance's face.

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Shiro watched as the group trooped out of the room. Yet again, the blue and red paladins had somehow been prevented from finally, finally, having a real discussion. But maybe there was hope. He thought he'd possibly gotten through to Keith about confessing to Lance, but he would have to keep an eye on that.

Only time would tell what would happen.