Lance was helping hunk with the laundry. The bags he and Pidge had stolen from the galra base so long ago were now their laundry bags.

They talked and as Lance turned one of them upside down, the photo hunk and pidge had found floated to the ground.

"I found that," Hunk said, "I didn't realize I'd kept it…Lance?"

His friends face had gone so pale it was green. Lance held the picture and just stared at it.

Lance tried to say something but had to clear his throat first, "…mm, where did you find…this?"

"the store room where we got the bags," Hunk said, "why?"

Lance shook his head, "Sorry, Hunk, can I leave you to finish up? There's something I've got to do."

He left before Hunk could say anything else, or worse, ask any questions.

Lance practically ran to his room, pulled out his issued com unit, and sent the following message:

Agent B1A5 request immediate response.

Agent B1A5 code Gradient679 request immediate response.

Agent B1A5 – I have found evidence of another Agents activity in enemy territory. Request reason for this and a response.

"Please?" Lance voice broke as the feeling in his gut sunk deeper. The red hair and blood in the room he'd found, it could easily have been Froks. The picture in his hand was the picture he'd taken himself when they'd first became partners. He was sure of it. The stains and rips couldn't hide the familiar background of their first mission together and the outfit they had been forced to wear.

()

"You didn't eat lunch, you should at least eat dinner," Hunk snapped shoving the plate almost near the edge of the table in front of Lance. Lance continued to play with the food instead of eating it.

He needed to go.

"You've been in a mood for the last few days," Pidge added, "care to share?"

Lance ignored her.

He was pinned. He was in a stalemate and there was no going back. Every choice he made was going to be the wrong one from here on out.

Keith scowled. He hadn't noticed lances mood, having been in a mood himself, but now that the others were mentioning it, Lance did seem pretty down.

"Perhaps tomorrow we should take the day off," Allura suggested. She was looking between both Keith and Lance. She feared that the mood of the leader was beginning to rub off on everyone else.

"We'll be stopping by the next planet to join our alliance," Coran reminded them, "so you can take a break after the meeting we have with their leadership!"

Suddenly lance head snapped up, "Pidge!"

"What?!" Pidge jumped.

"can you… I ask you for a favor...later?" Lance seemed to be rethinking whatever it was he was going to ask her.

"Sure," she said and leaned away from him, "Are you sure you're ok?"

"Yeah, yeah," he said and grinned, "just fine. Well I'm full, see you all tomorrow."

He stood and left, and it wasn't until after he was gone for a while that hunk noticed that he still hadn't taken a single bite of his dinner.

()

Lance walked into Pidges and hunks lab area. After he made sure it was just her in the room. Hunk would ask too many questions even after Lance would tell him to stop. Pidge wasn't one that needed to be told twice.

"What's up?" she asked, "Make it a quick favor. We're landing in a few hours."

"I need you to look up the security feed you stole from that Galra base a long time ago."

"you're gonna have to be more specific than that."

"The one where you and Hunk got your laundry bags from."

"Oh, that one," She turned to her computer and began to search her files, "What are you looking for?"

"I want pictures of every prisoner that's gone through there."

"who are we looking for?"

"I'll know it when I see it."

"Lance," she turned to him with an incredulous look, "hundreds of prisoners went through that base on a daily basis. You got to give me something."

"Red hair," Lance said.

Pidge waited for more, but Lance just stared at her.

"Aaaaannnd…."

"Long, red hair."

"Lance!"

"That's all I can tell you!" Lance stressed and pouted, "Please? Pidge? Pretty please?"

"I'm going to cut off that lip if you don't suck it back in."

Lance grinned, "Thanks!"

"Yeah, yeah," Pidge sighed, "Give me a few days to go through it all."

()

It took a while, but it finally hit Keith that Lance looked like crap. The normally energetic paladin was now painfully fake at best and apathetic the rest of the time.

And it was getting worse every day.

During a coalition gathering, he noticed Lance slip out. He also watched as Coran made to follow him. He stopped the ginger.

"I'll go, you stay and back up Allura."

Coran nodded and went back into the crowd.

Keith found Lance on the observation deck and moodily eating a suspicious lolliepop he and Pidge had gotten from the space mall. He didn't quite know how to handle people, but he felt bad, thinking, like Allura had, that Lances mood was his fault.

He sat next to him and tried to think about how Shiro would handle this.

"Crowds suck," he said and winced. Looking over at Lance the only response he got was a shrug. Keith couldn't figure out what was wrong, and if he didn't know what was wrong then how could he fix it, and he also knew that if he came right out and asked, Lance would get angry or say something stupid.

Keith hated people.

"Sorry."

Keith stated a little, "what?"

"I shouldn't've followed you," Lance said, still blank faced, staring out the large window, "should've just let you take shiro on your own and went back to the garrison. Should've faced all the extra work and gone to see Iverson. Should've just left before we went into that stupid cave. I had the chance, and I should've just gone."

They lapsed into a long silence as Ketih tried to puzzle out why Lance had said what he did. Was there a meaning behind it? Was this the actual problem or not? Why did he have to be so cryptic?!

Then it occurred to him that he was expecting Lance to talk to him about himself when he, Keith hadn't said anything either. Keith had just figured it wasn't any of their business or that it didn't matter. But then remembered that Shiro had talked about himself a lot before he had opened up to him.

"Shiro is really the only family I have left," Keith said instead, thinking this might be best, "so thank you for helping me get him out. Ahhh, after…after my dad died I was was passed around from one family to the next. I didn't understand why and I was angry all the time. Shiro was the only one that thought I could make something of myself. I'm sorry for the way I've acted recently…so why the hell are you laughing?!"

"I'm…really sorry," Lance choked, trying so hard to keep it all in, "if you're trying to open up to make me feel more comfortable, then thank you, but you really need to pay attention to your own facial expressions. You…you look like you've stepped in something smelly on your way to your first job interview!"

He doubled over laughing and Keiths face burned. He was embarrassed, but at least Lance wasn't brooding anymore.