Okay, guys. Here's chapter three. I'm so sorry for taking so long with this, but I really hope that you guys enjoy it! XOX
Man, was getting permission always this stressful?
Lance was currently pacing around the Garrison, avoiding the confused gazes of Garrison personnel and visitors alike. He had just come from his "sit-down" with Coran to get his permission to take out Allura on their date; which had only proven to be one of, if not THE most stressful conversation he has ever had in his entire life. Usually when a guy gets the dad's permission to take out their little girl, there's nothing more than the cold stare, telling him to bring home his little girl by a decent time, and the infamous "if she comes home crying, I'll break your kneecaps" line, or at least something to that effect. He didn't expect to come out of it having to scurry around the Garrison with his head down because of him wearing the equivalent of Altean courtship armor for just a simple date.
And now he found himself here. Aimlessly walking down another hallway in the Garrison to calm his nerves, which was somewhat difficult considering the metal bucket that was weighing down on his head.
"Lance! Are you okay?"
Lance raised his eyes to find Shiro walking towards him holding papers, a look of concern on his face. The red paladin gave him a small, reassuring smile.
"H-hey, Shiro! Don't worry about me! I don't wanna keep you." Shiro stopped in front of him, a smirk making its way on his face.
"Really? Because you look like you want to make a mad dash for the dorms. And besides, I can make some time." Lance sighed. He should've known Shiro would see right through the facade. He was always able to tell when something was wrong with him or anyone else on the team and he never hesitated to stop and listen to anyone's problems. That's what made him great to Lance, and something he definitely missed when Shiro was gone for all that time.
"Yeah. I'm just worried that Coran is gonna kill me if he finds out I took this stuff off." Lance replied. Shiro leaned back and took in the boy's attire. Aside from the VERY visible and VERY mangled bucket, he had on two metal pots that served as shoulder pads, each with a corresponding cape and a link of sausages around his neck. Honestly, it's no wonder why the sharpshooter looked like he wanted to run for the hills.
"I'm guessing this has something to do with Allura? Like a date?" the former paladin inquired. Lance snapped his fingers and pointed at him, signaling that his guess was correct. This caused Shiro to widen his eyes.
"Wait, really?"
"I know. I was shocked, too. But she said yes and we're gonna just go with the flow, y'know?" Lance stated, a blush creeping up on his cheeks as he looked down at the ground. Shiro looked at him, only to feel a tiny ping in his chest. As happy as he was for the red paladin, he couldn't help but be reminded of his brother, the one who had bared his soul and fears to him not too long ago. Who was worried about this kind of development happening. But despite that, his friend was happy and he needed to support him.
"Wow. I'm happy for you, Lance." Shiro finally responded with a small smile. Lance smiled back at him.
"Thanks. At least someone has the decency to say that with a straight face!" Lance yelled. Shiro raised an eyebrow in confusion, prompting the red paladin to keep going.
"No, listen! I went to tell Pidge the good news earlier! But guess what? One look at me like this and she was on the floor laughing for a good two minutes! Hell, I could still hear her when I was walking away!"
"Hunk laughed at you, too?"
"No, Hunk was cool. He at least had the decency to try and hold it in and gulp it down and give me some tips." Shiro nodded in acknowledgement. He expected this kind of reaction from Hunk and Pidge, but he knew that they came from a good place and there was no malicious intent behind it. Lance stilled for a moment.
"By the way, where's Keith?" he asked. With everything that had been going on the last couple of months, Lance couldn't even remember the last time he even talked to the aforementioned black paladin. He was still somewhat looking forward to finishing their conversation from several moons ago, but with everything going on with Earth they barely had time to acknowledge it. He honestly wouldn't be surprised if Keith ended up forgetting.
"He said he was going to relax with Cosmo. Knowing him he's probably outside." Shiro answered. Lance, unbeknownst to himself, exhaled in relief.
"Okay. Thanks for listening, Shiro!" Lance said as he began to run past his friend, starting his search for his friend. Shiro smiled and waved at him.
"No problem! Have fun!" the former paladin shouted back. He watched as the Cuban boy ran, attracting more attention from his mere apparel alone. Once he was out of sight, Shiro sighed softly, a conflicted frown on his face. Lance was going to get his happy ending, but at the cost of his brother's own happiness. The captain began his walk to find Iverson, mentally saying a silent prayer along the way.
It only took a few minutes before Lance was able to spot Keith, atop of the black lion. He was sitting next to Kosmo, staring out at the sunset. Like it was going to be the last time he would ever get to enjoy such a beautiful sight with such content. Lance couldn't help but to stare at his leader in awe, like he shouldn't be disturbed. But given since he was already here, he might as well go all the way. And so he started to climb.
"Man, you can be a real hard guy to find when you wanna be." Lance said, exhausted.
"Hey, Lance. Whoa!"
Through his exhaustion, he was a able to spot Keith's second take at him before looking up at him in utter shock. Slight embarrassment took over Lance as he looked down.
"What are you wearing?" Lance sighed, slowly walking towards the half-Galran and sitting down..
"Coran made it for me for my date with Allura." He heard Keith pause before he went on.
"A date with Allura?" Wow! Well done, Lance." Okay, that was something Lance didn't expect to hear. Sure, Keith isn't the type to tear someone down when they got a sliver of good news, but he usually isn't one to sound so...happy about it. The most he would do is just shrug and mutter out a little "Good for you" or "Congratulations" before walking out. The red paladin thought back to the conversation when they were saving Shiro after he crash landed back on Earth.
Oh, wait. I remember you. You're a cargo pilot.
Well, not anymore. I'm fighter class now thanks to you washing out.
Well, congratulations.
"Thanks. But it could be our last. I can't keep all these Altean customs straight." Lance remarked sadly, taking off his heavy metal bucket in the process. He's not going to lie and say he didn't feel any pressure going into this date. This wasn't just any regular girl. This was a princess from another planet. One who he actively died for so that they could have this moment in time. So, naturally, it came with the territory that he had to follow some customs the same way he would've had he still stayed on Earth and never found Shiro. And it didn't really help that he spent all that time trying to get her attention only for her to brush him aside and reject him, even going as far as to fall in love Lotor. But considering that he was now out of the way, Allura finally noticed him. But he couldn't help from asking himself,
"Why though?"
Keith saw Lance's internal struggle and tried to form the proper words. As much as the situation itself upset him, he couldn't leave Lance looking and feeling this forlorn about the future.
"Listen, if she's going out with you, it's because she like you. The annoying, stupid, Earth version of you." Keith responds with a smirk. Lance, still looking down, released a slight laugh. Keith felt his chest release at the sight. He was hoping that he hadn't said something to make the object of his affection crawl back into his shell of self doubt, but seeing him smile and laugh relieved him to no end. He watched as Lance raised his head out and looked ahead, savoring the sight of the sunset. The black paladin turned his head in the same direction. He had always been fond of sunsets ever since Shiro came into his life. Every time after they raced each other, they'd just stop and take a moment to watch. And now that Lance was sitting right next to him, it was nothing more than perfect to him.
"You watching the sunset?" Lance asked after a moment.
"Yeah, might be a while before we get to see it again."
"Man, I'm really gonna miss this place." Lance said somberly. It didn't take long for the bittersweet feeling to consume both of the paladins. This was their last day on Earth before they went back up into space to stop Honerva. If they learned anything from their time in space the first time around; it was that even though time in space might be slow, the time on Earth will remain the same. While they hadn't aged (with Keith being a unique exception), their families and loved ones did. There was a good chance that once they came back this time around, their loved ones might be older, or heaven forbid already gone. So they knew they had to get this done as quickly as possible, so that they can come back to making more memories.
"That's why we've gotta end this war." Keith paused, thinking carefully about what to say next.
"And we're gonna do it with the Lance that's the Paladin of the Red Lion, the Lance that's always got my back, and the Lance who knows exactly who he is, and what he's got to offer." Keith finished, turning his head to smile at Lance. The blue paladin paused in surprise of what was just said to him, but smiled soon afterward. A small smirk soon started to grace his features.
"You know what, mullet? You've gotten a bit better at motivating! Normally, you would say that I look flat out ridiculous." Lance joked. Keith rolled his eyes and shoved him, turning his head to the side chuckling. He did think Lance looked ridiculous, but he couldn't help but to find it endearing on how absolutely done he looked. How cute he looked.
"You do. But I'm just being supportive, I guess." Keith replied honestly. Any other time, Lance would be at least somewhat offended, but at this point he saw how much Keith had changed since he had left the team so he knew he was telling the truth and wasn't being sarcastic. That wouldn't stop him from trying to at least somewhat annoy him. Lance looked past him to look over at Kosmo, who was looking down at the ground.
"Hey, Kosmo? What do you think? I'm as handsome as ever right?" Lance asked in his flirty tone, oblivious to the fact that Keith facepalmed at his question. The space wolf turned his head to the red paladin in intrigue, only to sneeze and teleport back into the Garrison as if the question was never asked. Lance scoffed in fake offense as Keith tilted his head back in laughter.
"Seriously?! E tu Kosmo?!" Lance wailed in defeat. He quickly looked back at Keith who was still laughing at the site.
"It wasn't that funny, mullet!" he yelled. Keith's laughs slowly began to die down as he wiped his eyes of possible stray tears, chuckling to himself lowly.
"No. It really was." Lance grabbed the bucket next to him and proceeded to hit Keith in his shoulder repeatedly, not enough to hurt him but to teach him a lesson. Mid-hit, Keith took the bucket from Lance's grasp and placed it back on his head in retaliation, laughing some more. Little did he notice that the Cuban boy had begun staring at him. He couldn't help but to take in the way the half-Galran's shoulders bounced with every chuckle. How he attempted to wipe his bangs out of his face. How much harmony his laugh brought to his ears. How his smil-
"You good?'
Lance was startled out of his stupor with a confused and slightly alarmed Keith staring back at him, his ears slowly starting to turn red. Lance, himself, began to get flustered.
"Y-yeah. Just, um- Man, is it just me or is there some weight on my shoulders?" Lance asked aloud, moving around frantically and trying to lose the collar of his uniform. Keith looked him up and down, scooting a little closer to his flustered comrade.
"I mean, you ARE wearing pots for shoulder pads." Keith stated with amusement. He watched as Lance's eyes widened and looked at his shoulders, almost forgetting that he had them on to begin with. He then watched as Lance began to remove the sausage link and attempt to remove the pots. He succeeded in removing the pot and cape on his left shoulder with ease. But when he attempted to remove the pot form his right shoulder, the handle ended up getting caught on his uniform. In a rather on brand chain of events, the movement of his arm caused the cape that was attached to the pot to fling over his head, blinding him. The red paladin put up a valiant struggle to remove the cape, but alas it was to no avail and proceeded to fall onto his back and squirm in defeat, still struggling. Keith could only look at the scene, utterly dumbfounded. He chuckled before deciding to put Lance out of his humiliating misery.
"Okay. This is just getting sad." Keith chuckled, leaning forward to pull up Lance. He reached over and grabbed the cape off of Lance's head, not realizing how close their faces would be once it got pulled off of him. All Keith could see in this moment was blue.
To say that Lance was also taken aback by this new development was surely an understatement. One minute, he sees nothing but blue cloth on his face and the next he comes into contact with his friend's gleaming purple eyes. Just the sight of them had the Cuban boy entranced. Somehow, he couldn't help but to think back to when they were on that planet after they brought Shiro back. That same sense of tranquility and slowed urgency present as it was back then. Only this time it was different. He knew he didn't have time to savor this. He had things to do, a date to go on, a princess to see. And yet he couldn't bring himself to look away.
"Lance?" Keith asked breathily. Lance leaned in an inch closer to him, as if he wanted to hear him say his voice again. He noticed the way Keith took a quick look as lips before he looked back up and tried to keep his gaze.
"Keith, I-" he started. At least, he wanted to.
"I gotta go change." He said finally. He slowly but urgently grabbed the pots, capes, and bucket and stood up, ready to begin his descent down the lion, but not before looking back at Keith.
"Thanks for listening, Keith. It meant a lot." Lance said with a nervous smile. Keith gave him the same smile before looking back out to the sunset, or at least what remained of it. With the bucket filled with pots and capes on his arm, he climbed down. As he went, he began chanting phrases to himself to get ready for the date before him.
You got this, man!
Show her a great time, sharpshooter!
Give Allura the time of her life!
Get yourself out of these clothes!
He's your friend.
Right?