{Hey guys, it's the author here~! I was hoping to be able to ask you to give me feedback on this story by commenting here. I want to know if I'm developing these characters well or if some of the things I add here are very well connected to the real characters. I sometimes have trouble keeping in touch with the actual characters and get carried away with the fantasy a little bit, so please tell me what you think! I would also like to ask those of you who are enjoying the story to vote for my chapters. It really means a lot to me. Thanks to all of you who have been reading, and enjoy this chapter. Author: out}

[6:42 AM]

I woke up and found myself in a completely different room. One I recognised but wasn't familiar with. The walls were just like the walls in every other bedroom with blue accent lights that trace the corners of the room and where the floor and bed meet. I was sitting up in the bed, neatly tucked in and alone. I looked on the floor to find a friend sleeping with extra pillows to support his body. He slept on top of a blanket and underneath another. His facial expression was so serene and pure it reminded me of a child taking their midday nap. Some part of me hoped it wasn't another nightmare, but there was something important to note. There was a clock present in this room, and it told the time. This wasn't a nightmare. I fell asleep in my room and woke up in Lance's room.

How did this happen? I thought to myself. I repeated that thought in my head while waiting for Lance to open his eyelids to reveal those blue eyes. Blue. That was a color I didn't learn to hate over time because of my nightmares. All I saw was blood and gore and body parts, all of which were colored red. I grew to hate that color. I regret that stupid red jacket I would always wear, the fact that the lion I pilot is red irritated me, and just the color red in general. This hate I held for the color red made me love the color blue. So many shades of blue for so many different occasions, and the idea of blue flowers makes me think of peace. Blue was the color of peace, the color of cold, the color of majesty, and so much more. It just so happened that Lance's eyes were that specific blue with many different meanings. His eyes were the shade of blue that showed peace and the ocean and happiness all around, but at the same time they were the shade of blue that showed sadness and despair.

It wasn't just his eyes that told me blue was his color. It was his demeanor. Big ego like royal blue, but at the same time friendly and understanding like maya blue. Brave and adventurous like ultramarine blue, but he also has that touch of emotional impulsivity just like neon blue. There was so much of him in the color blue, but just in different shades. It was exactly like him. So many of his emotions are there, but they're not shown unless the light hits them in a certain way that forces them to show. I want to be that light. I want to be the light that makes all of his emotions show. I want to see every shade of blue Lance has to offer. I don't want to see any more red, that color is the most repulsive. Blue is the color I want to spend my whole life with.

He yawned and began to sit up opening his eyes and looking at me confused at first but then seeming to remember something. He stretched. "Good morning," he said mid-stretch.

"Good morning I guess. How did I get here?"

"You just walked in and laid down in my bed. I guess you were sleepwalking again."

"Oh..."

It was quiet for a while. The two of us were just sitting around. Lance was looking at his phone and paying whatever games Pidge put on his phone for a moment while I, without a phone to play on, just watched him play. Then a thought hit me that I had to get off my mind.

"You just let me lay down in your bed? You didn't bother to maybe wake me up and ask me to go back to my room?" I asked him.

"Well you've been through a lot and I just want everyone to be okay," he said calmly still playing the game on his phone. "Besides, it's bad to wake up a sleepwalker." He let out a soft laugh and placed his phone down.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." After I said that it was quiet once again. I hated the silence he was pushing me through. Normally he'd talk my brains out every day but now he was being quiet. I had wondered at this point how much had he truly heard from me to let the room fill with silence just so I could be comfortable.

"Hey," I said to break the silence. He turned to look at me. "Do I sleep talk?"

He laughed at that question. "I don't want to embarrass you but yeah. You're a very talkative sleeper. You also you move around a lot like you're trying to escape something. It's kind of depressing to watch you sleep, honestly. We all hear you say you're fine, but we also hear you screaming for help when you're asleep." I couldn't say anything. He sounded serious though. Some part of me wanted to believe he was lying but the rest of the team talks about it too. The sleepwalking and talking, the actively moving, the unsettling aura. They're lying! There's no way I act like that in my sleep. It can't be possible. "We just want our team in one piece." Oh.

"So they're only worried for me because they only want the team," I mumbled to myself. I don't know why I said it aloud. I saw that color again. I saw red. I saw the one color and nothing else. I saw anger when I wanted to be calm. I saw myself in a position I never hoped to see myself in. I was mentally preparing myself for the worst possible outcome.

"Keith, you've got it all wrong," he said, trying to reason with me. All it did was make it worse. The red I saw before he said this was faint, but now I was blinded by red. No other color made its way into my eyes.

"No I've got it the way I've always been speculating. No one cares about boring, useless, always angry, red Keith. Everyone only cares about the team. You're only nice to me because of the team." I stood up and got ready to leave, but Lance took my arm. The red was making itself worse and worse with every action Lance took. I hate this. I thought to myself. Lance stop pushing me.

"If you go out thinking like that you'd be lying to yourself. I want you to talk to me. What do you mean useless and boring? You're about as useful as it gets compared to me. And always angry? I've caught you smiling a few times, don't think I didn't see you laugh yesterday. What about red? What's so bad about being red?"

Everything was red. My skin and his, our clothes, the walls. Everything. "Don't you ever speak that three letter word in my face ever again, you hear me? That color is a fucking curse! That color has shown me despair and agony, and any one else who knows red well enough would tell you the same!" I couldn't hold myself back from yelling. I didn't just see red now, I felt it. I felt fire infecting my body and forcing me to a ledge I didn't want to be near. I felt my hand raise itself ready to slap and hurt. My hand has begun to do the one thing I feared. I was at the height of my swing until I saw Lance's eyes. The only thing blue that stood out from all the red I was seeing. The only flicker of blue in the dense red fog that clouded my vision. I let my hand fall along with my whole body and stared into Lance's eyes ready to cry but holding back. His eyes would be the death of me one day with the stare he was giving me.

He stared into my eyes harshly. "Are you going to let colors affect your mood like this? Seriously it's childish."

My voice was broken glass. "You don't know what I've seen." Red began to fade away, and my vision was slowly coming back to me with all the colors I was supposed to be seeing.

"You're right, I don't know what you've seen, but regardless you shouldn't lash out on anyone you care about because of it. Assuming you care about me." The last five words he spoke hurt. But I do care about you Lance. I wanted to tell him so badly how much I care and appreciate him, but I couldn't. He wouldn't feel the same way, not after I did something like that to him.

"Lance, I-"

"Lance, nothing. I don't want excuses I want you to either be truthful or quiet. I want you to be calm."

"I am calm!'

"Yelling isn't calm." He was right. I wasn't calm. I was shaking, overheated, and emotionally drained. "Tell me what's wrong with the color red. What's so bad about a stupid color?" There was nothing I could thoughts refused to let me talk. "That's what I thought," he said with a sassy tone, but it wasn't playful.

"N-no you don't understand," I said softly. "There are some things you're better off not knowing."

"How do you expect me to help with a hole in the story?"

"So then you're willing to help me?"

"Keith I don't like seeing you so miserable. I don't want to see anyone miserable. I just want everyone to be happy. I want to finish this war so I can go back h-home," he started to tear up and his voice bean shaking. "I miss earth, I miss the sand and water and I miss my family and I miss the blue skies." He let one tear fall, but no more than that.

I whispered to myself, "Blue," with no second thought.

He looked at me strangely, like I had said something so unlike me. "Blue?"

I nodded. "Blue."

"Why blue?"

I shrugged. "Just blue."

He looked thoughtful for a second. Something about blue that reminded him of an idea. Maybe it was that blue was just his entire personality, maybe not. Regardless, blue was something we both miss about Earth. The room was silent, but I decided to break the silence. "Blue is a color that works for every occasion, and it fits for any emotion and personality trait you could possibly think of. But that's just seeing blue. Have you ever felt blue?" He looked at me weird.

"You mean like sad?"

"No I mean feeling blue as a whole. Feeling like the embodiment of a color. I think if you try to feel like blue then maybe you become one with the color." Suddenly a thought crossed my mind. How could this tie into red? "Feeling blue isn't always sad. Feeling blue is alive. Feeling red is feeling destructive and upset. Seeing blue is seeing peace, seeing red is seeing anger."

"What are you trying to say?"

"I don't know anymore," I say through a yawn, "But I'm calm, aren't I?"

He lets out a soft laugh. "Yeah. Look I'm sorry I upset you."

"It's not your fault."

It was quiet for a moment. "Okay," his soft voice spoke before I yawned again. "Hey, if you want to take a nap in here you totally can." He yawned this time.

"No it's fine, I'll go to my room," I said getting closer to the door. I looked back at him to make sure he was okay. He gave me a thumbs up, and I reluctantly left the room filled with blue behind and walked to my room to take a cat nap. I passed Pidge who seemed confused as to why I was awake so early. Hunk also seemed confused when I passed him. Allura, though, was excited. She smiled brightly and hugged me.

"I'm so glad you're awake, Keith! I need your help with something," said Allura with the most upbeat voice I'd heard from her in a while. I almost forgot there was a side of her that was this energetic and playful. "Here, come see!" She took my hand and dragged me to the lounge and sat me down.

I said to her, "What did you need help with?"

"I want to understand something about humans a little bit more," she said.

"And you're asking me? Come on, you remember what happened last time I t-"

"Let's put that beside us, Keith. I need you to talk to me. I want to know I'd you can explain why you walk and talk in your sleep? How do you do it?"

"Well it's not something we can control actually. You should talk to Pidge about that since she knows more in that field," I said in as kind a voice I could without breaking again.

"Well...at least tell me how you feel about sleepwalking. Please," her eyes pleaded in a friendly way.

I sighed. "I don't like the fact that this happens, not at all," I said laying back with my arms spread out and hooking onto the back if the couch.

She seemed to be taking mental notes. "So, have you been dreaming lately?"

"I hate to say this Allura but you're not gonna to get to the bottom of whatever you're researching by asking me," I said trying to not be harsh but my attempts failed. "Talk to Pidge about this, I'm going take a nap." I got up and made way to my room.

"Wait, Keith!" She walked after me hastily and got in front of me. She said, "I just want to get to know you better."

I replied to her harshly. "How can you get to know me when I don't even know me?" I couldn't tell her anything about what was going on. I can't even trust myself with everything going on with me so how am I supposed to trust others?

She stopped following me. "Right. Sorry I bothered you then," she said sounding bothered. I just continued on my way to my room.

Finally I made it to my room. It was such an eventful morning I couldn't hold back from falling back asleep all over again in my room. I checked my phone for the time.

[7:32 AM]

"I can't believe that was all in one hour," I said to myself while laying down in my bed. I looked around the room for whatever trace of blue I could find, but there was nothing close to what I wanted. I got up to remove something red in the room. My jacket. I opened my door and made my way to the airlock to get rid of it. No one saw me in person on my way there, so there was no one to tell me not to throw out my only jacket. That didn't matter. This color is a curse. I told myself that while placing it in the first door of the airlock. The first door closed and the second door opened, sending that red jacket out into space where I would never see it again. I watched it go with no regrets and then walked back to my room to sleep peacefully with no sight of red in my room finally.

I let my mind drift off for a second to think about all what happened this morning. I woke up and the first thing i did was watch Lance sleep. How did I feel? I felt happy seeing him peacefully sleep like that. What happened after that? Well he and I got into a little fight. That didn't feel good at all. Then, I left and Allura talks to me. That was uncomfortable. I got rid of the last bit of red that was in my room forever, and that felt rejuvenating. Now I'm laying in bed comfortably, feeling a little happier than usual. That helped me fall asleep.

[Three days later]

I wake up in a bed staring at a paneled wall painted red with blood. Attached to my right wrist was a paper bracelet, also covered in blood. To my right, there was a busted IV and just on the floor lay all it's liquid. I look down at both of my arms. They're covered in self-inflicted cuts that dug deep enough to where they cut a vein or two. I couldn't move the hand with the cut veins.

Above and across and all around the room were paintings. All of them showing depictions of murder, cannibalism, and general bloodbaths. Crimes committed by tainted humans feeling pleasure from the sensation of other people's demise. A thought ran through my mind while I looked at the paintings. They should've let me die. They shouldn't have followed me to that roof. They should've left me there for Allura to find my corpse in the street with blood scattered on the cement. For Shiro to see me broken and torn, the scars that spread from my arms to every inch of my body being proof of that. Nothing but hated, useless, always angry little Keith with every drop of blood in his body scattered and every bone broken. But instead, the team had a different idea. I was sent straight to a hospital, being treated like the unstable monster I am.

The same nurse walked in as always. He said to me kindly, "You don't have to go through this every time, Keith. You can smile again, just take my hand." He walked closer to me and reached his hand out to grab the last functioning hand I had. "Trust in me, Keith." He leaned in.

"Lance," I whispered softly. He stopped me from finishing with a kiss.

As the kiss went on and got more heated, I felt cold metal against my head. The cold of the metal sent shivers down my spine. It was circular and pressing hard against my temple, and some part of me had hoped it was just a toy. We pulled apart just far enough for me to see that Lance was holding the metal against my head, and also to see that the metal was a gun.

"It didn't have to be like this, if you would have just saved me the first time," he said bitterly, his eyes glowing red.

"You don't have to do this." I was shaking. "W-we can put the past behind us, Lance. We can be happy together in the now!" I held onto the hand that was holding the gun, pleading for my life. "Please, don't do this!"

His newly red eyes showed no remorse or guilt. "I'm sorry, Keith." He pulled the trigger, and I was dead.

[11:23 AM]

I woke up in Hunk's room this time. I sat up and looked around for him, but he couldn't be seen. At least that was true until he walked into the room. I studied him for a moment. He had a kind expression on his face and his body language showed no signs of hostility as usual. He was more laid back than the others were, but this never meant he didn't care.

"Look who's awake," he said seeming surprised. "I thought you'd never wake up."

"I was hoping not to," I said jokingly starting to get out of his bed. "Sorry I took your bed."

The look on his face was that of reassurance. "Hey, if there's anything I can do to help my teammates out I'll do it so long as it's not, y'know, stupid, and this isn't stupid."

That's right, teammates. He was only doing any of this because I'm part of the team. I saw red again, but I couldn't take it out on someone like Hunk. Yelling at him would be like killing a puppy in front of a child out of sheer anger, and I don't want to know what his face looks like when things like that break out. He doesn't deserve the same neglectful treatment Lance gets. I sat and waited for the red to fade away this time.

Finally once the red was gone I answered him. "I guess you're right," I said weakly.

"Alright well before you go you have to know that Shiro wants to talk to you in his room," he said right as I opened the door. I nodded and left to make my way to Shiro's room

[Later]

As soon as I opened the door to Shiro's room I saw something red. It was the jacket I threw out the airlock. He seemed concerned just like Lance was, only his eyes were more soft instead of confused like Lance. Shiro gestured for me to sit down on his bed while he stood. I did so without protest, and waited for him to start talking.

"Keith," he started, "Why did you throw your jacket out? You've been acting weird lately."

"I know I've been acting weird. I'll try to put myself back in life for the team," I said with ambition trying to hide my self-contempt.

He saw behind the ambitious mask though. He said, "Keith, I want to know why. Why have you been going to sleep so late and waking up even later. Your sleep schedule is messed up and you spend half the time awake just training and the other half in your room or looking for Lance. Tell me, Keith. What's going on?"

"Shiro," I managed to get out. For a second I thought about what I was going to say. I need to tell him without telling him. I need to tell him how I've been feeling about Lance and why I hate the color red without seeing red. I need to tell him something without saying it because it would just leave him with more questions. I decided on what I was going to say, and finally put it in words. But then I decided I wasn't going to tell him that and said something completely different to avert the conversation to a different subject. "Why do you have my jacket?"

"You're right, why do I have your jacket, Keith?" He seemed to genuinely want to know.

"Well I don't know, you tell me," I said also genuinely wanting to know.

He looked into my eyes with a stern look on his face. "I don't know, why did you throw it out the airlock?"

My eyes widened. He threw another question at me that I had to avoid. What could I do this time though? Nothing. He has me in a corner. I let out a soft sigh and prepared to lie. "It doesn't fit me anymore," I told him trying to hold back in my voice the real reason why I threw it out. I'm sorry Shiro. I threw it out because it was red. I threw that jacket out the airlock because it was starting to piss me off just looking at it. That's also why I'm not spending bonding time with my lion, Shiro. I'm sorry, I can't tell you.

He didn't want to believe it, that much I could tell, but he did anyway. "Alright then, I'll see if someone on the ship could fix it for you."

"NO!" I can't believe I blurted that out.

A smile formed on his face. "Oh? But you seemed so sad that the jacket didn't fit you anymore so I thought you'd be happy."

I was going to say something, but the door opened. Lance, who was leaning on the door, fell to the ground and let out a large groan. Shiro helped him up.

"Something tells me you know more about what's going on with Keith than I do," he said bringing Lance to the bed to sit next to me and then closing the door. It felt like two siblings getting in trouble for doing something wrong together and their dad has to scold them. "Tell me what you know, please." His eyes showed more concern than I'd ever seen from him.

Lance looked at me for help. He didn't know what to do. He knew everything but he didn't know if he could tell Shiro. That's when I realized something I was very wrong about. Lance didn't take my situation as a joke at all. He didn't tell anyone and he certainly didn't think what was going on was something to laugh at or tease. Lance is the only one who knows. He's the only one who knows about the nightmares, and he's the only one who's seen me grow weak to just a single color. Lance was also the make or break for my emotional state. If he told Shiro it would be the end of me, but if he kept it to himself it would be the end of Shiro. I let out a sigh. I was starting to see red again. Lance could tell.

"Shiro," Lance started. My heart dropped. "Keith has been having really vivid nightmares lately," he said looking at me to see how I was doing. I wasn't okay. I was nowhere near okay. Red spread across the room.

"Get that jacket out of here," I commanded.

Shiro looked confused. "Why?" he asked.

"Just do it! JUST GET RID OF THE FUCKING JACKET SHIRO." I couldn't hold back any of my anger. He tossed it out behind the door which only made my mood worse. "No! Throw it where it belongs! DO YOU KNOW WHERE IT BELONGS SHIRO?!" I was done for. Red infected every inch of my body and prepared me for once again hurting something I cared about. The color controlled me. It made me frustrated.

Lance put his hand on my shoulder and Shiro left to toss the jacket back out into space where it belonged. I looked at Lance again and right into his eyes. Blue. Then all the red was gone in an instant. I took in deep breaths and tried my hardest to cool off while he just stared at me. I felt comfort in his stares. I felt comfort in him being with me. Any moment in time that he wasn't with me, I knew I was at the verge of breaking.

Lance finally broke the silence that spread throughout Shiro's room. "Will you be okay?" he asked.

I shook my head. "I don't trust myself being alone," I confessed with caution. He already knew a lot, he deserved to know that much at the least.

He smiled at me kindly and patted my back. "You'll be fine," he reassured my helpless little self. I looked at him, and he looked at me, and we just stared at one another quietly. Both of us were thinking very different things, I was sure of that. I let out a soft sigh and made my way out of the room, but midway through the room Shiro walked in and put his hand on my shoulder. He stared at me for a few seconds waiting for something. An apology?

"I'm-"

"It's okay, Keith. Lance and I will talk alone for a while if that's okay," Shiro interrupted softly and moved out of the way of the door for me.

I walked out and went to the kitchen to see if there was literally anything for me to eat at all. Anything. Rat poison, ice cream, food goo, soy sauce, literally plastic, anything, anything! I'll eat whatever I can get.

[A week later]

The red glint in the Lance's eyes sent fire throughout my entire body. With my only functioning hand, I managed to take the gun from him and point it back at him, forcing him to raise his arms. I was holding a gun, and pointing it at Lance. He seemed to be anxious.

"You look awfully blue, Keith," he said nervously. "Would you like a blanket to warm you?"

I grinned devilishly and said with menace, "Red is not your color." Bang! I fired. The bullet landed right between his eyes. As soon as I saw the blood leak from his body I felt upset. I felt overwhelming anger and despair. I killed someone who I cared about. I'm a murderer. Everything is my fault isn't it? That's why I'm in this hospital. No, I'm not in a hospital anymore. I'm in a padded cell.

At least I was until my eyes opened to find darkness and pseudo-claustrophobia with blade in hand. I felt a mixture of cold and heat in both of my arms. It felt like cold wind blowing on hot skin, only wind wasn't blowing. I touched my arms and felt some sort of warm liquid touch all over my hands . That's right, I nearly forgot. I hid in the closet so that I wouldn't see the red leaking from my arms. I sat in that closet bleeding for a while listening to everyone looking for me because they haven't seen me in three days. I stopped leaving my room to socialize since it was no use. I couldn't leave my room without always being at the verge of yelling, and I decided that I didn't want to see anyone else the way I saw Shiro and Lance when I had that melt down last week. They continued to search for me throughout the castle and never thought to look in my closet. That was a relief.

I sat with my thoughts in the closet thinking about all the blue I could see in the future and how much blue there would be in the afterlife. It must be sweet. Free from all the red and free from nightmares, free from giant robotic lions and the galra. I can be with my dad out there in the afterlife and watch the paladins from above succeed without me. I can watch them all move on and smile and laugh without me. The team could be free from me. I drag them down anyway. My thoughts always get the better of me.

I used my blood to draw a smile from cheek to cheek on my face since now it was impossible for me to smile on my own without it being fake. The fresh blood that ran to either cheek began to drip back downward to the corners of my mouth. From there some traced the crack between my lips while the rest fell down to my chin and met in the center. Drops of blood descended down into the black abyss of the closet as I stood, preparing myself to leave and show the team the last thing I will ever draw.

I was ready to leave the closet until I heard a familiar voice call out for me. "Keith," he called out getting closer to the closet. "I'm sorry I have to go in your closet, buddy." I quickly turned around. I knew the voice. It was Lance. I didn't want him of all people to see me like this. Why did I even draw on my face in the first place? He opened the door and immediately saw blood on the floor of the closet. "Oh my quiznak...Keith?" His voice sounded perturbed.

"It's me, Lance," I whispered. "I'm right here." My voice was broken, cracked, and fearful.

"Are you okay?"

"When was I ever okay?"

"Keith," he said, getting closer to me and eventually putting a hand on my shoulder. "We've been looking all over for you. Were you seriously hiding in here the whole time?" I nodded. That's when he noticed I was hiding my face. "Hey, buddy. You can turn around."

"No I can't," I said crossing my bloody arms and holding them close to my chest to hide the marks I made with my blade. "Why don't you turn around, and I run to go wash up all this blood? Then I'll let you look at me."

Lance let out a soft sigh and turned around, allowing me to turn after him. He turned to face me, completely betraying me. His eyes searched every bit of my face and followed traces of blood to my arms and then to my hands. He appeared shocked and sad, truly sad. I didn't want to see that look on his face. Sadness was the last thing I wanted to see plastered on the one trusted man in my life's face. His beautiful blue eyes were broken, his soft skin now drenched in tears at the sight of my arms covered in my own blood.

"Lance," I said weakly, "You should've stayed facing away from me." He nodded and breathed in slowly trying not to make it obvious he was crying. I walked to him with my arms wide open asking for a hug. "Let me try to explain." He didn't take the offering, in fact he refused. He left the room still crying and ran off to his own, and I soon followed after him.

Before I went straight to his room I quickly found the bathroom and washed my face and arms clean of any blood with hydrogen peroxide and searched frantically for the first aid kit to hide my cuts with bandages. After all was dealt with I ran to Lance's room and walked in without bothering to knock. He was sitting on his bed letting his tears fall.

"Why?! I NEED YOU TO EXPLAIN! NOW!" he yelled, ripping out my heart and shoving it down my throat.

I walked to him slowly, recognising that he was hostile at the moment but hoping that it would fade away soon. "I was broken, Lance. I needed an escape. You're the only reason I never let that blade hit my skin, but before I hid in the closet you were too busy to talk. I hid myself away and never left. I slept until one day I realized you would never find me anyway, so I cut. I was so broken." I repeated I was so broken in my head until it drove me insane.

At least that was the plan until Lance spoke. He said to me, still splintered, "Keith, you know you can always talk to me. It doesn't matter if I'm busy. I know I'm the only person you opened up to about your feelings, Keith. I'm here for you." His tears stopped flowing, and mine had just began. I rammed my head into his chest and just cried. He let me. He was the only person who would listen to me. He was the only person blue enough to accept me and the rollercoaster that was my emotions. The only one. "It'll be okay, buddy."

I looked into his blue eyes again before I decided to close my own and let myself drift back into sleep. He made me feel secure for some reason. He killed me nightmare before last, but that's not him. That's not my Lance. I killed him more recently, but that's not me. That's not his Keith. It's not the Keith I know either. The Keith I know would kill for someone he loved, not kill the actual person he...loved. Does the Keith I know love Lance? Well, I'm gay enough, so probably. Do I love Lance? I opened my eyes again to look again at his eyes for the same shade of blue that saved me from ultimate disaster. He's made me feel wanted and accepted these past 6 and a half months. His presence sent relief throughout. His multiple deaths tore holes from my heart. Seeing him dead was definately something I didn't want. So was it love? I closed my eyes again before he could catch me staring. Was it love or was it just a strong friendship? I mean, it's not impossible for me to love Lance. I swing that way. Matter of fact it's the only way I swing. It didn't matter about my sexuality though. Lance was straight, at least in my eyes. I've never seen him flirt with boys. I've never seen him not flirting with girls, so I guess that settles it, right? He's straight. Straight as a line. I'm about as straight as a circle. I decided then that I wouldn't confess. He won't be able to return the feelings anyway, so it was a lost cause.

I felt my body sink slowly into the bed and allowed myself to relax. Seconds later my entire body caught the sensation of falling. My closed eyes saw imagery of me falling down a hole. I jerked and opened my eyes in a flash out of fear of actually falling just to find myself still in Lance's arms.

"Everything alright, man?" he asked.

"I felt a weird sensation. Like I was falling, almost," I replied, forcing a small laugh.

"I get that too sometimes. I think I remember a teacher saying it was because your heart rate fell so quickly into relaxation that your brain thinks you might be dying, so it sends signals everywhere just to make sure you're alive. I guess it kinda helps me too," he laughed. "At least I know you're still alive."

I smiled and continued to sit in his arms for a while until I realized something. Isn't this what couples do? I got up slowly and apologised. "Sorry, Lance I didn't mean to...well...I-I didn't." I started stuttering and felt blood rush to my face.

He let his face form a kind smile that reassured me. "It's alright, Keith. Here, lay down. I'm not letting you go back to your room after everything that happened. Besides, I should be the one apologising." I looked at him confused. He said quietly, "You warned me...I didn't listen. I should've stayed by your side when you told me." He stood up and got behind me, then pushed me playfully into his bed. "Get some rest. I'll be right here if you need me."

I layed down in his bed without a word and closed my eyes once again. My heart rate slowed and lead the rest of my body to relax. Here was where I was free from my nightmares. It was this room. After sometimes going a week without sleeping and sometimes sleeping all day I felt this room was the best place for me to relax. I was with the last person I could ever love when I was in this room. I was near someone who would help me no matter what it took. I was with someone who I felt like I actually wanted to bond with and get closer to. It was strange. We had a bonding moment just now. He cradled me in his arms this time. We both saw the worst sides of each other now, and we both knew how to handle it. Soon enough we both would know our favorite foods and we would be sharing music. One day, Lance would be confident enough to show me some other talents he has. He's no one trick pony, that's for sure. He might not have one thing, but he has many things. That's what made me love him so much. That's what makes me love him. That's what gives me this feeling.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Be prepared for a large timeskip to Season 6 where Keith and Krolia are stuck on the space whale. Don't forget that voting for my chapters helps me build my confidence for the upcoming chapters! Thank you and have a nice day/night!