That was Keith.

Oh god that was Keith.

Lance could tell, even if his eyes were full of fucking tears and he couldn't really see anything.

That was, without a doubt, Keith.

He felt his heart stopped beating.

He just wanted to disappear. Or redo everything he had ever done in his life so this would never have happened.

With a swift movement, he got out of Mu's hands, and was now leaning on the wall opposite of the one he'd been sitting with from the start.

His heart was now back and alive, beating so hard it felt like it could burst any moment now.

Keeping his back turned to Keith, he tried to compose himself.

What mask to put on now?

Should he play it off?

Should he run?

Should he be serious and tell him the truth?

..but what WAS the truth?

He couldn't hear any of the things the others said to him.

"..."

"...!"

"..ce!"

A hand grabbed Lance's shoulder and forced him to turn around, now facing Keith.

His head exploded.

His eyes widened, twitching, not sure what to focus on. Looking at the other's chest, his vision blurred. He kept blinking, clenching his fists.

He glanced up for a second, to meet Keith's dark eyes.

Lance bit the lower lip so hard he felt the salty taste of blood.

Keith didn't even look at him.

He didn't know what to even expect, but that really sunk his heart, ship, everything.

Keith avoiding eye contact was like having his heart being nonchalantly thrown into a well.

He swallowed the rock in his throat.

Lance let his vision down, now trying to focus on his feet and not falling out of consciousness.

He could hear footsteps faint in the distance. The hand was still on his shoulder, so he assumed Mu left them alone.

After a few moments, Keith opened his mouth.

"Shiro is gathering us for the grand meeting."

.

.

.

Lance wanted to run away. He planned it all in his head; first he'd smack Keith in the back with something sharp, sneak out of the palace for Blue, then fly the hell out of there. Then he'd leave Blue at the castle, get his stuff and some food goo, and then hijack one of the old altean ships to fly away forever with.

Perfect plan!

"We're here, Shiro!"

Damnit.

"Keith! Lance! Good to see you both. It was a mess out there, kinda glad you didn't see it."

Lance didn't want to know what he referred to.

All the paladins were gathered together in a room that was close to the size of the living room of the castle. There were pillows and all in all, a very cozy place. Much better than the empty hall Lance had sobbed in up to now.

Hunk was quick to meet Lance by his side. He lowered his voice.

"Buddy, are you okay? I saw what happened, but I was too far away from you, also I had a huge amount of food in my mouth, so stopping it would have been.."

The blue paladin shook his head, not wanting to hear more of it.

The important part was that nobody came to his rescue. No matter their own reasons, it didn't validate the fact that they did nothing.

He caught a quick glance at Keith, hoping to get eye contact.

He only saw his back.

Glancing at the other paladins, he sighed.

"I think I might have cause a commotion. I really need your help getting out of this."

.

.

.

"Welcome back, everyone! The paladins of Voltron and I, Princess Allura, are all honored to be welcomed at your beautiful planet Abox. We hope to forge a great bond between us, and to leave all issues behind as we open this banquet to[...]"

Allura was holding her speech, looking ravishing as usual. Lance could tell, she had practiced that.

He was feeling a little better now that he got to talk to Shiro and all about the Fortar problem.

They got it, and accepted it. Allura listened in, and (of course) agreed to help him out as best as she could. They couldn't leave their paladin in such distress, right?

Right?

Allura sat down, now done with her speech.

The king of the Hoobryxes nodded in acceptance, and yelled out words in a weird tongue that Lance assumed were their language? He'd never thought of the fact that he could always understand what everyone else was saying without problems.

It wasn't really a problem, but he really just thought it was weird.

A hoobryx came behind him and poured a purple liquid in his glass, while bowing. Lance recognized it as Mu, and gave them a small smile as they moved to Hunk who sat next to him.

As they began to grab food from the huge bowls around them, one of the inhabitants rose from his place and turned towards the paladins.

Lance froze.

Mu froze.

"Your highness, I must inform you that one of the paladins of Voltron has disgraced themselves towards us as people, and must therefore apologize. Especially to me,"

The hoobryx glanced at Lance and smirked. It went cold down his spine.

The cuban quickly glanced in Shiro's direction, hoping the hero would save him with his grace for words.

The hero was just as frozen as himself.

"I know what you are implying, Fortar," the old king said slowly.

"And what did the paladin do?"

Fortar straightened up, bulging his chest and smiling sinisterly, and locked eyes on Lance.

"The paladin ran into me, fully aware of the consequences. I fell to the ground, ruining everything around me with our sacred liquid, that you all know is impossible to clean! He made a fool out of me, my dear king. We can't let that slide away, can we?"

The king looked at Fortar, then to Allura.

"We Hoobryxes have a long tradition of apologies. It is a sacred part of our culture, and our laws."

The king rose from his chair.

"When someone does someone wrong, they apologize. We don't MAKE mistakes. They just don't happen. I am sure the princess is aware of our culture, and is ready to apologize for her paladins actions?"

Slowly walking towards Allura, the king rose their voice. Their face was impossible to see, as it was covered in hair. Only the crown could tell there was a head inside all of that fur.

"Me?" Allura whispered. Lance assumed she wasn't as informed about the species.

This was trouble.

Unless he could do something about it.

.

Tadaaaaa, now you have to wait some time for the next update!