Chapter three

stories

Lance did not think that Keith looked good health-wise. Unfortunately, he wasn't a doctor. If he was, he wouldn't have so many scars himself. Scars of battles with himself, stumbling over rocks, and everything else that could possibly happen to him while alone on a planet. He had to remind himself that he was not alone anymore, and that someone had found him.

He thought the visitors would be more impressed by his camp, but apparently they weren't. To be fair, it was a simple camp, just a makeshift tarp over a place to sleep. The lone tree that he liked to sleep in swayed with the wind of the storm. The tree offered him protection, but with the stormclouds completely covering up the sun, it seemed more eerie than anything else. Shadows crossed his face as he remembered things he never wanted to.

Lance lay Keith down on where he would normally sleep, softly putting the blanket over him, brushing his fingers across Keith's forehead lightly. It wasn't warm, if anything colder than Lance was used to."Your friend'll be fine. He doesn't seem to have a fever, he's just battered up from the crash." He looked up, worry still in his eyes but fading. This wasn't as bad as last time. That much he was thankful for.

"His name's Keith." The small one said. "I'm Pidge, this is Hunk."

"Nice to meet you all. I wish it were under better circumstances," He hesitated, scratching the back of his neck, wondering how he should talk to these people. They seemed to speak the same language, which was a start. "I'm Lance."

Hunk glanced over at Keith, who had rolled over on the stiff bed of moss only moments before. He didn't look comfortable or happy. "Are you sure Keith's going to be okay?" Real, genuine concern was in his voice, concern Lance wished he had someone to bestow upon.

"If he stays inside, yeah." He paused, and his cabin-tent thing fell into complete silence once again. "How'd you guys get here?" Lance asked. "Sorry if it's kinda an odd question… I've just been alone on this planet for a while now, so it's kinda special that you came here. It's been to long since I've seen other people."

"I would prefer if we waited until Keith woke up. He knows the story better than both of us." Pidge said, pushing his glasses further up on his nose. "How did you get here? If you don't mind me asking, of course."

Lance sighed. "It's fine. I would rather forget, but I want to be remembered, and sharing stories is part of that, I guess." He tried to smile, and started telling of how he had got there. As he told, the memories came back to him as clear as they ever had.

Like nearly everything else in Lance's life, it started with a battle and siblings. Those two things weren't related, of course, it was just how it started. He remembered the day so clearly it was almost painful, even though he wanted to forget so much.

The purple light bathed nearly the whole planet. So many people were panicking, so many people didn't know what to do. Lance was one of the only exceptions for this. It was so horrible, the memories, the death, the whole of it.

He was in the Garassion at the time. Lance knew where the pods were, and as the world was bathed in the purple light of the Galra ship, he grabbed oldest brother, who happened to be sneaking out with him, too. His brother decided to stay behind and fight.

Lance left Earth by himself.

He never really expected to survive and crash land on an isolated planet. He lost track of the days quickly, and the only thing he knew for sure was that he had been there for a while. When people finally happened to stumble across his planet, it was one of the best things he'd ever experienced.

Their names? Coran, Allura, and Natri.

Lance honestly never thought he would cross paths with other aliens besides Galra after the battle, but, like it always happened, he was proven wrong. Natri was injured badly when they arrived. Coran and Allura tried their best to help Lance nurse her back to health, but they were no healers. The only good thing about her death was that there was one less thing to worry about. She faded peacefully in the night.

Allura and Coran wanted to leave right after that. They thought it was Lance's fault that she died when it really hadn't been, and they tried to leave right after that. He begged them to stay, tried to prove that it wasn't his fault. There was no convincing them. His first friends in ages left as quickly as they came.

After that, Lance swore that he would never let anyone else die on him. For him, when bonds were formed, they were not to be broken. It was his unspoken rule, one that insured chaos and peace nearly at the same time.

Pidge and Hunk listened quietly, without any questions or interruptions. This was not like them, not at all. Could one's story truly be so captivating? If Lance was telling the truth, and apparently he was, yes, yes it could. They lost track of time while listening, and by the time he was done the sun was up. The only one who had gotten a little bit of rest was Keith, and he had been out for the whole time.

"Sounds like you've been through alot more than us." A gravelly, pained voice came from behind them. Rustling the sheets as he tried to sit up, trying his best to fix his hair, Keith managed to actually come out of it all like someone who hadn't been through a crash landing. Which was false, because he had.

"Depends what you've been through." Lance grinned upon seeing him awake and at least a little bit okay. He guessed this time no one would die on him, but it was still far too early to tell. They had only known each other for hours, and most of that time Keith hadn't even been conscious.

Keith sighed, laying back down. "We've been through enough." Stormy-grey eyes met Lance's ocean-blue ones.

They both had the same kind of sadness in their gaze.

They had both been through so much.

They didn't deserve it, and no matter how much they both wanted otherwise, that was what they got.

a/n: woop, here's the next chapter I promised. As always, enjoy, the next 3 or so chapters will come in around a week or so. Maybe a month. I'm not sure how long, but, I know I already said this, please enjoy! Review, follow, favorite, maybe? Also, thank you so much everyone who's supported this so far. It makes me so happy...

Again, enjoy, I'll see you all soon!