Well,I thought this story was over. Apparently not. This is Part 2 of Lie to Me and will be titled 'Speak to Me'. It's (mostly) from Keith's POV which I wanted to do anyway - I decided my idea would work better as a continuation of this story rather than a standalone, but if you enjoyed the first three parts and want to leave it there then that is totally fine! Anyhow, we'll soon see whether this was a mistake or not. Also, it will get more mature/explicit in chapters 5 and 6 so *warnings there*.

There's a problem here, Keith realised too late. This wasn't the first time he'd acted before thinking about what he was doing. Now he thought about it, when did he ever think? Thinking wasn't really his thing. Even now, all this thinking was a bit too much. He usually let Lance do that; Lance liked to think, and clearly, Lance had done a hell of a lot more thinking than he had because - this was not where he wanted to be. This is my stupid fault, he thought as he was shoved onto his back. Wait - Lance was being pretty damn rough. It was in protest that Keith dug his fingers hard into Lance's back, but that only seemed to fuel him. Damn. I'm totally gonna be penetrated, he thought, panicking.It would be much easier to just, sort of, open his mouth and voice his misgivings. What are those things called? Keith struggled internally. Oh, yeah. WORDS. But he had no words. He didn't want to tell Lance, 'stop' because - well, he was enjoying it. Everything up to now had been way more than he'd ever hoped for. But now they'd reached this point and - there was no border between them. It had happened so fast. Too fast. Actually - when had his clothes ended up on the floor? Yeah. Keith was no good at thinking or reading the situation. He was good at taking the first leap, volunteering, taking action - and that's what he'd done when he'd kissed Lance. It was because of Lance's thinking. He could see the clockwork ticking in Lance's eyes, the 'Do I? Don't I? I want to, but should I?' that had annoyed Keith, and kissing Lance was a simple, clear resolution. And a pleasurable one. Everything after that was a blur of groping, biting, rubbing and skin. Hands everywhere, lips anywhere, scratching, tumbling - a heap of uncoordinated ecstasy that had all led to this moment. And Keith would be the first to admit - he'd initiated it. He'd felt Lance's surprise at his eagerness, the hesitation at first, all slowly dissipating as he was reassured by Keith, until he finally stopped thinking - and things got dangerous when Lance stopped thinking. Everything Keith did, Lance took it as a push, a signal to go further, and that was fine but - and Keith really didn't want to admit this - he was scared.

He finally found his words a moment before it happened. "Lance - stop."

Lance halted instantly, as though Keith had found his 'pause' button. He was stiller than a statue. Keith heard his own heaving breaths between them, Lance braced above him in deadly silence. This went on for longer than Keith was comfortable with.

"Are... you okay?" Lance finally asked, his tone clipped.

"Uhm - yeah." Said Keith awkwardly. And it was so awkward, because Keith had just broken the flow of something he wasn't sure he could start again.

"Do you want me to" - ?

"No. I mean... yes, but" -

"But you don't want to."

Keith hated that Lance said it like that. Because it was true, but it wasn't. And hadn't they agreed to be honest with each other? Or was that just Keith in his foggled mind making things up? Was it okay to be honest now?

"I'm sorry. I just can't." Even though it was dark, Keith couldn't bring himself to look at Lance's shadow. He'd flung an arm over his face instinctively to hide the blush and angled his head towards the wall.

Then that was that. A disappointing and unsatisfying conclusion to what was supposed to be... well, neither of them had known what it was supposed to be. Even so, Lance had reacted differently to how Keith had anticipated.

"It's alright." Said Lance brightly, rolling away from Keith and stationing himself onto his back. "We don't have to rush."

Keith wanted to be happy that Lance was so readily accepting his hesitation, but something felt off. "Yeah. We don't have to..." He agreed. Then Lance ruffled Keith's hair affectionately and laughed a little through his nose.

"You must be exhausted. I didn't think, sorry." Said Lance.

Why did he sound so detached? And when had Keith ever shown a sign of being exhausted? He'd jumped into Lance's lap faster than a Teledove space leap - so why was he being like this? Keith was full of questions, but he was never too fond of thinking up answers. And Lance was. He was thinking right now. Keith could almost hear his analysing, whirring in the darkness.

"Uhm - Lance." He tried.

"Get some sleep, Keith." Said Lance, hooking an arm around Keith's shoulders. "You need it."

Keith didn't want to be the one to mention that both of them were still hanging on the prime of their arousal - Lance the most out of either them; it was pressing against Keith's leg for crying out loud. But advancing into that territory felt too awkward right now, Keith decided. He didn't want to embarrass himself any more than he already had.

At some point during the heavy silence that followed, Lance drifted off into a comfortable slumber, and Keith was left in the dark with his thoughts. He had an itching urge to get up and - run around the castle, fight a robot to within an inch of his life, ride a motorbike off a cliff, anything to shake off this feeling. But Lance's arms were a barrier, holding him to the soft, hot sheets of his small cramped bed. There was nowhere he'd rather be, he decided, than in Lance's arms - so why did he want out so badly? He wanted to do these things with Lance, so much so that it physically ached in more places than one, so why had he stopped?

Keith realised he was gay way back in training, coincidentally around the same time that he'd dropped out. Or maybe not so much of a coincidence, now he thought about it. He hadn't thought about it before. He tended to avoid thoughts like that. But he'd done his research; he knew how these things were supposed to go. He just hadn't expected it to happen so soon. Least of all with his school rival... and who'd have thought his feelings would be reciprocated? Admittedly, he'd been holding them in for a long time. Keith had always been jealous of Lance's carefree nature. Jealous. That was easier to explain than in absolute awe of him. Not to mention, Lance's strategic mind was impressive in and of itself. And he'd always thought of Lance as warm - the kind of, family, welcoming, open-armed, homeliness kind of warm. For a long time, Keith struggled to decide why he found that attractive. Then he gave up, and resolved to keeping his feelings private forever. Because that was easier. Staying cold and detached and distant was easier than trying to aim for something which would only make him vulnerable. The Sirens had decided for him, though, and his innermost desires were forced into the open onto the one person he'd been trying to hide them from. Of course, Keith was glad of that now; without it, they'd have never come to light, but in the end, it was Lance who brought them together. It was Lance who made them talk about it - something Keith was never very good at. Talking, thinking... two rather essential skills needed to function as a human being that Keith did not possess. Or rather, he did - it was just too hard to try and do both at the same time in any way that was at all constructive. But despite all that, in his head, he knew what he wanted. He had planned to tell Lance what to do, when the time came. But it was kind of an awkward conversation to have. How did he turn to Lance and say, "Oh, by the way, you can't just dive straight in there, we need to do some prep first." However he'd thought about wording it, it also sounded wrong and embarrassing and UGH - Keith squished himself further into Lance's overheated side. His face was hot again. He was blushing at his own stupid thoughts. That's why he didn't like to think.

Keith woke up first in the morning. Again. This had happened the first time, too, except that time he'd bolted out of sheer panic and avoided Lance for days. He fought with his instincts to remain still. In bed. Next to the radiator of heat that was his lover. Lance. His lover... Lance... The bed was starting to warm up again, so Keith slapped himself in the face. The sound stirred the comatosed heap next to him, and Lance groaned as he drifted in to wakefulness, stretching out his freakishly long arms, narrowly missing Keith's nose. Lance blinked, bleary eyed, like he wasn't sure where he was, then his face broke into a radiant and weary smile once he saw Keith.

"Morning, mullet-head." He yawned.

Keith glared at him. "You're like a furnace. And you snore."

Lance frowned. "I so don't."

"Oh, you so do."

"Gah!" Lance exclaimed, before scrunching up Keith's hair again in that weird gesture. Keith didn't like it. "I can't win with you." He conceded playfully, unaware of Keith's disdain. "And I'm too hungry for this. Let's get up and get to breakfast, kay?"

He was too happy. And they weren't talking. Not properly. And all of this just felt so...

"You want to go now?" Keith asked him. He'd been lying awake half the night sure that Lance would want to do something. Or was it only Keith who got like that in the mornings? They were both naked, so Keith tried to judge the situation for himself without Lance noticing and - well (his face was going red again, he forced himself to think about swords in an attempt to distract himself, but that only made it worse when he realised a sword was the worst euphemism ever) - Lance was certainly more awake downstairs than he was making out. But he hadn't even made to touch Keith like that, let alone do anything else. Didn't he want him anymore?

Keith shook his head, dispelling his paranoia as they both got out of bed, pulling on their clothes as quickly as they could. It was odd seeing each other stark naked in the bright room. Lights off was definitely better. For now.

Lance was babbling on the way to breakfast about piloting, and Keith wasn't really listening. He wasn't walking next to him either, it was as though he was trying to keep two paces ahead at all times, his hands shoved deep into his pockets. It's not like Keith expected them to be skipping down the corridors hand in hand with flowers in their hair, but he didn't anticipate this... distance. And breakfast wasn't any better. The others didn't help at breakfast either; it was as though everyone at the table, save for Coran who still remained somehow blissfully unaware of everything, was trying to draw attention to Lance and Keith exclusively, saying very little but sharing the odd sneaky smirk.

"You look tired this morning, Keith."

"Mmm."

"You must be hungry after all the action yesterday."

"Sure."

"Wow, Keith is your hair usually that messy? What happened?!"

"I'm going to train."

He was sick of it, and sick of himself for being sick of it. He pushed himself from the table, leaving his breakfast half-eaten and making eye contact with nobody, least of all Lance.

An entire day passed this way, and Keith spent the better part of it beating up the castle robots, and then letting himself get beat up because it was a nice distraction. He'd half-expected (and hoped) that Lance would come after him, that he'd talk it out and untangle the hot mess in Keith's head. But he didn't. Keith didn't know where he was. And he tried not to care. Just because they were a thing now, they still had their own lives, right? They still needed their own space. Keith loved his own space, but he wasn't overly opposed to sharing it with Lance. Just for a little while.

"HONING IN ON PLANET ALAFLUFFTERUZIANMANTRABELT" Coran yelled through the intercom that evening at dinner, despite being in the same room as them.

"That wasn't even Alteian." Said Pidge flatly, "That was just nonsense."

"Does he expect us to remember the names of everywhere we go? So far I only remember Balmera and crazy mermaid planet - and I'm not too sure on that second one." Said Hunk.

"I vote we call it Fluff." Said Lance, "There was 'Fluff' in there somewhere."

"Agreed." Said everyone simultaneously, except Keith, who eyed Lance from across the table. Lance wasn't looking at him. He was just sort of grinning at everyone in that 'Lance-y' way. It was annoying.

"We're only stopping for fuel." Said Allura tiredly through the intercom, "But we'll be passing through the busiest outdoor market in the galaxy. You're all welcome to stop by and browse the stalls while we fill up - just keep your armour on so that we can all communicate in case something goes wrong. The market contains more species of advanced alien race than you've ever encountered at any given time, so stay alert." She warned.

"Yes, princess," Said Shiro automatically, despite the fact that she couldn't hear him, and left to change into his armour. The others followed suit, but Keith stayed stuck to the table.

"Keith?" Lance surprised him by staying behind.

"I'm not going." Said Keith, his chin resting on the tabletop. "You guys go... have fun."

Pause.

"Okay! See you later." And Lance was out the door.

Keith sat up, staring at the space where he'd disappeared. SERIOUSLY?! Well, that did it. Any reservations Keith had had about the night before were gone. Lance was officially a moron. He didn't even ask him if he was okay, though he knew if he had, Keith would have just responded with 'I'm fine' or something along those lines. But I'm blatantly not fine, thought Keith angrily, even someone as dense as him could see that! Keith pushed away from the table so hard that his chair went flying. He didn't bother to pick it up as he stormed to his bedroom -and then not his bedroom because it still smelled like Lance and that was just too much right now - so he went to the pool instead.

The market was crazy to say the least. The Paladins had never found themselves so surrounded by such a multitude of different species, all jostling around mobile stalls – some held up merely by wooden poles and fabric covers, others floating metres above the ground selling cutting-edge space technology from their equally flashy ships. Pidge beamed at the sight, her eyes becoming entranced discs, swallowing up the hordes of undiscovered equipment.

"I – I did not know I needed to be here so badly until I saw this." She whispered, enthralled, before leaping from the ship and straight into the thronging crowds.

"Ohhhhhhh, there are food stalls. Food stalls!" Hunk cried, following suit.

"Paladins, be careful!" Allura shouted after them.

"Don't worry, Princess," Said Shiro, "Lance and I will – Lance?"

But Lance had already melted into the crowds too. Shiro pinched the bridge of his nose. He and Allura exchanged a glance.

"They'll be fine." Said Coran with a shrug, "We're all connected and at the most it'll take us an hour to refuel. Not to mention, any species on this planet are here for trade only. Politics is irrelevant here. AlafLuffteruzianmantrabelt is a place of peace."

"Try saying that five times faster." Lance snarked through the communicator.

"Don't you dare do anything stupid." Shiro warned him.

"Me? Stupid? Come on, Shiro. You know me better than that."

Lance was in the spice market. Despite wearing his visor, the intense smells penetrated deep into every pore, making him woozy. Red, orange and yellow bloomed around every corner. Hundreds of voices chattering in alien languages bubbled from the ground up, creating a din of smells and sights and noise not unlike the foreign countries of Earth. Red… Keith would have liked it here, Lance thought. He felt bad for leaving him at the castle, but he knew that Keith needed his own space. He'd pushed him too far last night, and the last thing he wanted was for Keith to start properly avoiding him again. Plus… they needed to talk about what had happened. But again, he didn't want to push Keith. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking, Lance thought as he transitioned into another part of the market where the smells changed from spices to incense and the stalls became denser and darker. Lance had thought about it a lot, and realised that he hadn't really known what he was doing. Did Keith know what he was doing? And – had he been with anyone before? Lance had no idea how much experience Keith actually had. Either way, he forced himself to stop speculating again. This time, he'd let Keith come to him.

"Young man." A hand gripped Lance's shoulder, spinning him around. The smooth voice belonged to a – well – a girl? An unknown species of girl, Lance decided on, but definitely a girl – adorned in a revealing, sequined body-suit, perfectly in line with the stripes that streaked her blue skin. Her long, pink hair was much the same way, covered in sparkles and glitter, and in her other hand she carried a mysterious black box.

"Hmm…" She mused with a teasing smile, "Maybe not so young."

Her hand still hadn't moved from Lance's shoulder. Lance gulped.

"Err – Hello." He said. Keith, he thought, I'm with Keith, I'm with Keith.

She pressed him against a shadowy, sandstone wall. "What are you looking for?" She asked, her voice slippery and quiet. It wasn't sexy or tempting in the slightest, and she was trying to press against Lance.

Quiznak. "Not what you're looking for. I am a happily taken man." Said Lance firmly, prising her hand off his shoulder. Before adding, "Thanks." He had to be polite.

Her face fell and she stepped away. "Oh, I'm so sorry." She was embarrassed.

"No, no, it's cool." Lance reassured. He struck a pose, "I get this a lot."

He didn't. She giggled. "You're funny. Y'know, I'm a fortune teller too. How about I tell you your fortune as an apology?"

Hmm… Lance glanced around. She looked innocent enough – if you only ignored her attire from the neck down. He shrugged. "Sure. Sounds cool." They did have an hour after all.

She flashed a strange, blue, enchanting smile. "Good choice. Follow me."

Shiro, Hunk and Pidge had found each other and were wandering around the exotic pets stores. There were Muppies (dog-like creatures covered in feathers), Yeppers, fire-swarming-bees and mice not dissimilar to Allura's.

"Has anyone seen Lance?" Shiro asked.

The others shrugged.

"Lance?" Pidge asked into her communicator.

"Dude, where are you?" Hunk tried.

There was nothing. Only static. The three shared a look, and a telepathic agreement of, He's in trouble again.

Keith was bored. And frustrated. He'd exhausted the pool and had fought enough robots over the past day to create a small army. Now he was wandering aimlessly in the silence, running from his own thoughts. His armour lay, ready for him, by his bed where he'd thrown it off the night before. It would be so easy to just put it on and go outside. And next to it, Lance's sweater. The moron must have forgotten it. Looking at it, crumpled on the floor, he'd initially felt detached – irritated even – until – Lance. Where had that come from? That sudden stab in his abdomen, an arrow of instinct that warned him – Lance is in danger. Breathless with the sentient realisation, he grabbed his helmet and shoved it on.

"Guys – is everything alright?" He asked into it.

"Keith!" Shiro was the first to answer. "Not exactly. Lance is missing."

I knew it, he wanted to say, but didn't because – it was weird wasn't it?

Keith swiped Lance's sweater from the floor, clutching it tight in his hands.

"I'm coming out." He said through gritted teeth. "I'll find him." And he meant it.