Lance woke to the gentle pelting of raindrops on the window. His eyes fluttered open, and the first thing he wondered was: what the hell was that repetitive, aggravating noise? Then he remembered. Oh yeah, Earth has this strange occurrence known as rain. When water vapor clouds form high in the air, and cry down upon the landscape... or something like that. Lance still didn't quite understand it. Back on Altea they had normal weather such as boiling hot rock showers. Lance didn't see in any way how water could do good for an ecosystem, but most of Earth's functions didn't logically hold reason. Perhaps that's what made it so utterly intriguing.

But more importantly, what was Lance doing here? Last thing he had remembered, he was laying outdoors, his limbs sprawled out in the grass beside Keith. They had fallen asleep together, which wasn't hard for Lance to accomplish at all. Not only was he used to sleeping outdoors, but that night he felt awfully sick. Happy, yes, as Keith finally kissed him, yet his eyelids felt heavy. Perhaps Lance attracted some sort of odd Earth infection, but it was no bother any longer. He felt much better now, stretching his arms above his head and legs under the heavy covers.

But where in the world was Keith? Lance assumed he somehow carried them both back to the cabin while he was still knocked out, but how and why? Lance looked around the dark, bare bedroom with nothing more than a queen sized bed to rest upon, and an empty, wooden dresser. Because of the rain, he couldn't tell if it was day or night. It looked pretty dark outside the windows, but that could've just been due to the abundance of gray clouds hovering above, acting as a shield from the sun's rays. And though there was a clock propped on top of the the dresser, the uninformed Altean Prince didn't know how to read Earth time, so he was basically alone on that front.

With one last yawn, Lance fell from the covers, and trudged across the creaky wooden flooring. He opened the door, and yelled out for Keith as he headed toward the kitchen for some breakfast (or whichever meal was appropriate for such a time). "Keith! You want me to make you food? We still got marshmallows, if you want!"

Lance opened the drawer, and pulled out the leftover bag of marshmallows which Shiro had provided after seeing Lance's overwhelming love for the treat. He poured them all into a bowl as he awaited a response. None came.

"Keith!" He tried again. "If you don't answer, I'll be forced to eat all these by myself." He shuffled to the fridge, and got out a carton of orange juice. Lance then proceeded to pour some of the ironically orange colored juice into the bowl amongst the marshmallows.

Still, no response came.

"Hmm... alright then, Keith." Lance placed a spoon in the bowl, and opened the fridge for two frozen waffles. "Your loss, but if you're lucky, you might get a chance to share this waffle-peanut butter-avocado-sandwich." He threw down one of the frozen waffles onto the counter, and smeared some peanut butter on it with his finger. He then took an avocado, peeled it, and smashed it on top of his creation. Placing the last waffle down, he took his two breakfasts, and steadily maneuver to the dining table.

Without bothering to use a plate, he took his waffle sandwich, and dipped it into his marshmallow stew. Lance took a bite, and mumbled in satisfaction. "Ah... The nectar of the angels."

When Lance was finished with his meal, he looked around the room to see if Keith had returned without him knowing... He hadn't. Lance was starting to get worried now.

But this was no time to get flustered! He needed to uncover Keith's hiding spot, and fast. This was a cruel prank if it was that. Keith should've known by now that Lance would grow anxious if he disappeared without any notice. Especially after last night... Oh, quiznak. A terrible thought ingrained itself in Lance's mind. Perhaps... Keith was still upset? Maybe Keith had told a bluff and didn't like Lance at all. Was it possible he had pushed Keith's boundaries? Lance didn't want to imagine the horrible possibilities. He wanted Keith to like him, not be embarrassed or angered around him. He didn't even need to have the same sort of romantic feelings that Lance held for Keith. He would be content with just staying friends, so long as Lance got to stay near him often. So long as Keith didn't run away.

Lance felt a drop of nervous sweat roll down his hair line, ending up at the brim of his nose. He wasn't quite sure what was getting him so angsty. Keith was likely just on the toilet or something... right?

Lance stood, and took long strides to the bathroom door. He knocked once, and asked in a whisper, "Keith, you in there?"

No noise came from behind the door. Lance looked down at the door knob, and saw that it was unlocked. He placed his hand around it, and began slowly turning the handle while saying, "Keith, I hope you're decent. I'm coming in." He creaked the door open to be greeted by nothing more than an empty bathroom.

"Keith!" Lance pleaded. "Stop playing around! Where the quiznak are you?"

Lance raced out the front entrance. He didn't bother to put clean clothes on to replace his boxers, or even slip a pair of shoes onto his feet. As he exited the wooden floor of the cabin onto the gravel path, he felt the mushy sludge of mud beneath his feet. The rain had picked up, and was already soaking Lance's entire body, forced his hair flat down against his scalp. He started running down the muddy pathway, doing his absolute best not to slip in the mud.

As he ran, he saw a figure further up in the distance. He squinted his eyes through the rain, and was disappointed when it turned out to be his human bud, Hunk, instead of his missing friend, Keith. "Hunk!" Lance called, grabbing the attention of the startled, yellow raincoat wearing human. "Hunk! Did you see Keith? Do you know where he is?" Lance asked frantically as he raced closer and closer to his alien friend.

"Lance! You're... you're not wearing any clothes."

"Don't be foolish, Hunk." Lance grabbed Hunk's shoulders, and shook him. "I have my boxers. Plus, that's not the concern here. Keith's missing!"

"Oh... he is?" Hunk was finally able to speak when Lance loosened his grip. "Well... I did see him earlier today. He was on the beach talking into this thing. I'm not sure where he is now. That was hours ago."

"Yes! Beach!" Lance grinned. "That's where he is! Thank you, Hunk. See you later." Lance placed a kiss on Hunk's cheek, and swiftly darted the other direction towards the ocean.

Hunk furrowed his brows, and called after him through the pouring rain. "At least put some shoes on first!" But it was too late. Lance was already long gone.

Lance rushed past tall trees, and fallen logs until he finally arrived at his destination. The wet sand felt odd against his feet, and now that he wasn't under the protection of the trees, the rain was pelting him harder than ever. Gosh... The gray swirling clouds in the sky made the day look so grim. Lance wished they would just vanish already.

"Keith!" He called, looking from one end of the beach to the other. He didn't spot any sign of life, let alone the person he was looking for. Only the muddy ground, and the vast ocean.

Lance pulled his fingers through his hair, sleeking back the damp, white strands from his face. He put his other hand on his hip, and exhaled, exhausted from all the running. Keith wasn't here. Why the Voltron wasn't he here? Hunk said he spotted him only vargas (or Earth hours) ago. What in Voltron was Keith up to?

Well, no use in standing idly by on a beach for any much longer. Lance scrambled back into the forest, and paced forward. Where was he going? He had no clue. But he was bound to stumble upon Keith eventually if he kept up his search . Maybe... These woods were pretty big after all. Keith could've been anywhere at this point. Maybe not even in camp, but Lance didn't want to think about those terrible possibilities.

It was about half a varga until Lance finally found Keith. First he heard a noise, then saw a flash of purple in the distance. Lance eyes widened, as he gazed upon Keith, who was standing in front of the cave where the two unresponsive lions rested. Keith was facing away from Lance, and didn't seem to notice him. The Galra Altean held a blue holographic device in his hand, attempting to talk into it. Lance recognized the contraption as the communication device which Keith had tried to use the first day they had crash landed. "Hello. This is Keith. Hello?" Lance heard Keith say, getting progressively more irritated with each syllable. "Come in Castle of Lions. This is Keith. I have the Prince. Giving the coordinates now."

Keith then proceeded to speak a chain of numbers which Lance assumed were the coordinates. But... why was he doing this? The device. Did Keith finally get it working?

Lance held in his gasp, and swiftly hid behind one of the thick oak trees. His heart was beating fast, and pointy ears perked as he listened to Keith's desperate attempts to get ahold of Altea.

"Hello! Come in! King, Queen. Anyone. Please, I have the Prince here with me. We need assistance. A-a ship... a wormhole... something. J-just... someone please respond. Hello? Hello! This is Keith, giving our coordinates now." He responded with the same chain of numbers as before, but louder and lower. "Alfor, Allura, Coran. Please hurry... W-were stuck here... It's been weeks. I thought you would have found us by now... come on, respond, respond!"

Keith's voice was growing shaky. Lance glanced from behind the tree, and saw the area around Keith's eyes were red and puffy. "Respond..." Keith continued. "Respond... Hello? Please respond... damn it!"

Keith turned to the lions, and stomped up to Red indignantly. He drew his foot back, and kicked the machine with the most powerful blow he could muster. When he spoke after the fact, Lance could hear the strain in his voice from the pain shooting up his leg, vibrating throughout his entire body. "Open up, Red! Stop sleeping, you quiznaking piece of scrap metal!"

Keith's cry rang out across the forest, shaking the trees, and sending the unsuspecting creatures scattering. "After all we've been through." Keith kicked Red a second time. The lion continued sitting motionlessly. "You lead me across the mother quiznaking galaxy, and trap me on this... this planet! Work, damn it. After all we've been through, this is how you repay me? You asshole!"

Keith looked back down at his holographic communicator, his body trembling. "Please... Respond... Someone please respond..." His voice switched to a helpless plea for only a moment, then burst out into a mad flurry of rage. "RESPOND, DAMN IT!"

Keith threw the device down as hard as he could and stomped on it, causing it to shatter into hundreds of tiny pieces. A stream of tears fell down Keith's face as he continuously thrusted his foot up, and slammed it down on the already broken communicator. "Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT!" His features were balled up, and face flushed with anger. Lance could not longer tell if it was the rain staining Keith's heated cheeks, or the tears flowing from his eyes. He made loud, ugly sobs, while stiffening his shoulders, and clutching his hair beneath his hands.

When Keith finally calmed down enough to function, he bent down, grabbed a stone about the size of his fist, and tossed it in the direction of Red's face.

The stone flew up, hit Red's nose, and bounced off harmlessly. The machine didn't even flinch. Keith grabbed a bigger rock, and hacked it up to Red's eye. Once again, it bounced back to the ground uneventfully. "You fucking ass! OPEN UP YOU COWARD!" Keith's voice trailed, as he landed another kick on Red's mechanical paw. "O...open up... pl... please!"

Keith collapsed to the ground, his arms wrapped around his throbbing leg. A tick later Keith's face fell into his palms, and chest hunched to his knees. His entire body was trembling, and his hair and clothes clung to his skin due to the dreadful rain. The clouds picked up, shooting water down so fast, it felt like bullets against Lance's skin. "Please..." Keith managed with a tired, raspy tone. "Please, just help me... I'm so lost... so, so lost."

Lance furrowed his eyebrows, and felt heat rise to the tips of his ears. Why was he so mad? He shouldn't be... Keith was sad, and Lance should've been upset because of it... but he wasn't. The thing which boiled in the deepest part of his consciousness, was anger. Hate even. How could Keith say such awful things? About being trapped on Earth, and longing to get back home. Didn't he see? Home was awful. For Lance, but especially for Keith. He was a Galra hybrid! Of course his life sucked. And what did he want to do? Crawl back helplessly to that place infested from corner to corner with undeserved prejudice, where his mother laid dead, and where people avert their children's eyes whenever he walked past. It made Lance infuriated just thinking about it. But Keith didn't care... He didn't care because of Lance. Because, that's all Keith truly wanted. To get the hell away from Lance: a self absorbed Prince, with the nag for long rants, and an aggravatingly boisterous personality. One with the sense of adventure, who couldn't stand to simply suck it up, and live a normal life as part of the royal family.

Lance felt a tear trickle down his own cheek. Or was it the raindrops falling from the sky? Perhaps a competition of both. Either way, Lance couldn't stand it any longer. He needed to confront Keith face to face, and tell him off for all he did. How he toyed with Lance's heart, right before letting it crumble in his hand, and crushing it beneath his foot.

Lance stepped from behind the tree, and took a step to the collapsed Keith. He clenched his fist, and attempted to present himself confidently, though it suddenly seemed his lanky legs were much too weak to carry his own weight. "I thought you liked it here..." Lance muttered, glaring at Keith, stone faced.

Keith's head jerked up, and he hastily scrambled to his feet. "Lance! What are you doing here? You have no clothes on, you're going to get sick."

"Don't change the subject." Lance lined his jaw. "I thought you wanted to stay here... with me."

"You heard?"

"Don't you want to start over here on Earth?... Here with me?" Lance raised his voice. "We can live together. We can have all we've ever wanted. Freedom, adventure, love-"

"When did I ever say I wanted that crap?" Keith demanded. "Don't mix up your desires for mine. You don't know what I think."

"Oh, so what? You want to go back? To that damn planet, where everyone fucking hates you? Where queens and kings lock their children in castles their entire lives? Where the rich get richer, and the poor die, and nothing ever changes? You seriously want to go back to all that? Why? What does Altea have, that Earth doesn't? You have no family there. You have no home there. You've got nothing without me!" Lance yelled, his voice so loud, it shook the ground beneath them.

Keith narrowed his eyes, and closed his taloned fists. Lance continued. "Yet you want to mosey on back? Why? I know. Because you're just too damn stubborn, aren't you Keith. You know, if you start actually trying to fit in, maybe everyone would begin treating you like an actual Altean. Yeah, I saw you shapeshift when we first arrived. You have no reason not to look like everyone else. All you're doing is flaunting your Galra ancestry, because you want to feel like a special little snowflake, don't you. Either that, or your little daddy issues engraved in your brain the fear of fitting in with others. Well, good for you! Now you get no one's approval. If you leave, you lose all this. This... this acceptance! And if you go back, all you gain is more prejudice. I hope you thought all this through, Galra."

A wave of silence overtook the two. The rain died down some, yet the atmosphere seemed to grow colder, damper, and bleaker. Lance attempted to read Keith's expression, but a dark shadow across his face made it impossible.

Lance took a deep breath in, his chest pinging with pain. "Well?..." He muttered.

Keith paused for a tick, then looked up to met Lance's eyes. He took a step forward, until his chest was only a few inches from touching Lance's. Keith's face was in a scowl, his nose wrinkled, and eyebrows scrunched together. Lance had never seen him this furious... Lance hated it.

Keith drew his arm back, and before Lance could make a move to react, Keith slammed his bawled up fist straight into Lance's face. Lance was knocked back, and instantly fell to the ground. His skin and hair stained with mud, and a nasty black circle formed around his left eye. The shock only temporarily numbed the pain however, and he soon brought his hands to his face, and screamed out in misery. "QUIZNAK! QUIZNAK, QUIZNAK, QUIZNAK! FUCK!"

Lance rolled around in the dirt, digging his nails into his scalp. "Crap, crap. It hurts. It fucking hurts!"

"I don't want anyone's approval, you idiot!" Keith yelled down at him. His yellow eyes gleamed with bloodlust. "I don't care what the hell other people think! And I don't care how they keep telling me I need to fit in. Maybe I can't, ok. So just shut up about me, and my family. You don't know shit about me, Lance, and you never will."

Lance stumbled to his feet, still holding his right hand to his swollen, black eye. When he saw Keith's strained expression, Lance felt a tingling of guilt rise inside of him. Those things he said before, he didn't truly believe. Perhaps it was just the heat of the moment that compelled him to act like such a jerk. Still, Lance wasn't going to back down just yet. Keith had still hurt him, and Lance was afraid the Galra hybrid was only going to hurt himself if he stayed on Altea any longer. Or worse. Someone was going to hurt him.

"Are you sure, Keith..." Lance mumbled, wiping the trail of blood from his chin. "You want to go back to Altea? Even if I don't follow."

Keith paused, and took a deep breath in. "Altea is where my mom is." He mumbled, turning away from the bloodied Altean prince. "Besides. It's better than spending the entire rest of my life looking after a bratty Prince with family issues."

"What?" Lance shouted. "You're saying I have family issues? Ha! Have you even looked at yourself lately?"

Keith let out laugh, letting his head fall back. The cold touch of raindrops landed on his face, and fell across his purple skin. "Yeah, you're completely right, Lance." He turned his attention back on the Prince, his face scrunched, and mouth frowned. "I do have family issues. But, you know what Lance? At least you have a family that actually gives a shit about you. Oh, and you know. Loved ones who aren't already dead."

Lance's heart sank to the floor, and chest pinged with regret. "I - I'm sorry Keit-"

"You know what's so annoying about you, Lance?" Keith asked, placing his hands on his hips, straining a smile. "The fact that you always think you're right. How you rant on and on about things you've never even experienced. Now tell me, does that make any sort of sense to you? No, no it doesn't. That's why you need to learn, your majesty, that life doesn't revolve around you. That you don't need to always butt into other people's business, and just let them handle their own crap. No one needs you, Lance. The only person you should be concerned about, is yourself. So maybe step back, and review yourself for a change. How about it?"

Lance went silent. He didn't know what else to say. His heart was dragging him down, and he felt as though he was going to collapse. Lance saw Keith turn, and take a step back into the forest. "You win, Lance." Keith muttered from over his shoulder. "When help does arrive, I'll tell them you're dead. I know that's what you would've wanted. To just disappear, correct? Well, congratulations. You're finally getting your wish. Good bye forever, your majesty. Hope you enjoy your new life."

"Keith!"

"What?"

Lance took a sharp breath in, his ears flooding with the overabundance of things he wanted to confess. But there was only one thing he could tell Keith - he had to tell Keith - before they parted ways permanently. "... I really liked you... That kiss... It was the happiest moment of my life. You were my first ever friend, and first ever love."

Keith was silent, his expression impossible to read. The murky air between them felt cold and suffocating. "Same here." Was the last thing Keith said before disappearing behind the trees, leaving Lance alone as before.

Alone, soaking wet, and lost... so terribly, horribly lost. Lance fell to his knees and began to sob. He sobbed and sobbed until there was nothing left to cry. He then looked up at the lions. Red and Blue... They didn't even give a stir. They were the ones who brought him to Earth, yet the time when Lance truly needed them, they didn't utter a sound. Leaving him terribly, horribly lost. Without a bodyguard, without a friend, without a lover, without a soul mate.

Without Keith.

Lance dug his toes in the mud, looking up at the big, blue, mechanical beast. "Screw you Blue." He muttered, sticking his middle finger skyward. A weak, pitiful gesture. "Was this your plan all along? Well, congratulations. You've succeeded."

Lance placed his hand back down, and lost himself in another fit of sobs. He cried, and cried, until the rain finally passed, and the sun fell over the horizon.