As morning came, I didn't feel the familiar presence of warmth surrounding my body like very other night when Lance was beside me. I awoke, slowly sitting up and rubbing my eyes. It was way too silent in my room, no talking between us, no laughing at his terrible jokes, not even the almost silent sound of him breathing as he slept soundly next to me. I realize that this was only one night that we were apart, but it seemed like everything but natural for him to be somewhere else besides next to me.

I forced myself to look as normal as possible as I got dressed and headed out to see where all the others were. They didn't suspect or ask anything, so I assumed I was putting on a good act. But seeing Lance standing next to all of them made me want to sprint right over to him. I had to resist, though, for both of our sakes. He looked over at me and gave me a smirk, one of those classic ones he gives Allura or any other girl he finds remotely cute. Even though it was cliché, it still made me laugh quietly. I shook my head then soon returned to the blank expression I had been wearing.

Allura informed us that we needed to go out and assist a planet near us. She said it was urgent, so we all rushed to get our gear on and get to our lions. This was the first real mission we've had in a while, everything has been sort of calm lately. I'm not used to having to rush like this, but I didn't really have a choice. All of us dealt with it fairly smooth, we aided an alien civilization torn apart when Zarkon passed by them. All of the struggling really took the feelings off of my mind for a while.

"Need a hand, Keith?" Hunk flew over to me in his lion.

"Yeah. Take this rubble over to the nearest town. We need it to help rebuild their town."

"Sure thing." This went on for a little while, until eventually the citizens thanked us greatly and we began to head back to the ship. Allura also praised us for our work, but she told us we weren't done.

"The ship needs a bit more fuel if we're going to be jumping back and forth through wormholes like this again. I just got another distress signal from a galaxy not too far from this one. We have to head over there as soon as we refuel."

Shiro stepped in, "We need two of you to go and retrieve the fuel while the rest of us ready the tanks." I was about to volunteer when Coran spoke up first.

"We need one of you to accompany the princess. She must go along to be the one to harvest the fuel. You'll need someone of Altean blood to be successful."

"Well in that case," Lance stepped over next to the princess. "I guess I can tag along~" He smiled at her, and she replied with the same scoff as usual. This was common.

What wasn't common was how I reacted. I looked away, unconsciously, and sighed loudly. Louder than I had ever hoped to be, because afterwards everyone looked over at me and their smiles turned to confused expressions. I had to recover from this somehow.

"Classic…" I had used this line before, but maybe it'd work on them again. The silence made me even more nervous.

"Haha, right?" Hunk, thankfully, chimed in. I felt extremely relieved. They all conversed for a while, until it was finally decided that Lance and Allura were going. Before they boarded a pod to retrieve the fuel from some distant planet, Lance grinned at me. I couldn't bring myself to smile back, even when he looked some what hurt and flew out of my sight.

I had never thought of myself as the jealous type, but I might be forced to think again. Even if he does hit on Allura constantly, I had never taken it seriously…maybe this was just an act to avoid suspicion. I really hoped it was. But the thought still remained that he might not be acting. I winced internally at that thought, but kept my outside expression as blank as before.

"So I guess we just wait now, huh? D'you think they'll actually get some?" Pidge, asked, gesturing towards Hunk. The three of us sat together as we waited.

"Well I hope so, we have to aid to the guys who sent us that signal. They'd better hurry."

"Yeah…they'd better." I couldn't stop myself. No one said anything for a minute, it was a very uncomfortable silence. "For the ship." I had to say something to clarify, they all probably suspected something by now. Lance would probably freak out if I let anything slip.

"Hey Keith…can I ask you somethin'?" Pidge looked towards me.

"Sure. What…what is it?"

"I mean, I don't want to sound nosy or anything, but did something happen between you and Lance? You both seem kind of…"

"Odd?" Hunk must've been thinking about it too.

"Yeah. Odd. You're both not as cruel to each other as you usually are." I had to think carefully about a response before speaking.

"I haven't really noticed a difference. He hasn't had a reason to yell at me or anything, maybe he realized I'm not the huge jerk he thinks I am."

"Maybe…I don't know." Silence again. "You seemed pretty ticked when Lance wanted to go with the princess. I just thought it was weird."

I wanted the conversation to be over. "No need to worry or anything. I'm sure Lance would let you both know if something was wrong."

It seemed like a longer time than it actually was before Lance and Allura came back. They successfully retrieved the fuel, and it didn't take that long to refuel and head off again. Today had me tired out by the time we finished everything and I got to head back to my bedroom. As desperate as I was for Lance last night, it seemed now I just wanted some alone time.

I pulled my Galra dagger out from under my bed and started sharpening it. I did this whenever I needed to think. Well, I was, before there was a knock at my door.

"Who is it?" I didn't sit up as I waited for a response. "Who's there?" Nothing. I stood up and walked over, opening the door slowly before it was thrown open. It caught me off guard when he barged in, I stumbled backwards as Lance quickly pushed my up against the wall, gazing down at me.

"Hey there, K-augh!" I didn't have time to think before instinct took in and I ducked out from underneath him, pinned his arms behind his back, and raised my dagger to his throat.

He let out a small, surprised noise. It took a while for me to register that it was Lance who had barged into my room. I slowly let go of him and dropped my blade. It clanged against the hard floor as I fell back onto my bed. He stayed standing, frozen, with his back to me, before also registering what had just happened.

"Dude. What was that?" He sounded really concerned.

"I-I don't know, you scared me and…" He rubbed his neck where my blade grazed it and looked down at me. I couldn't keep eye contact with him for long. He almost looked disappointed or…betrayed.

"Did you not know it was me…?"

"No…I didn't. Look you can't just barge in, alright? I don't want that to happen to you again. He took a seat next to me after closing the door.

"Is…everything ok with you? Today you seemed kinda weird when we went on that mission…I don't know…"

"Everything's fine, Lance. I'm just…exhausted after today."

I could tell he didn't exactly believe me, but he didn't want to pry any further I guess. "Alright then, let's get some re-"

"I think you should go to your room tonight, Lance." I sounded angry. I wasn't angry at him, I was just confused.

"W-Why? Are you sure you're-"

"I'm. Fine. Now go…please." He hesitated and then looked over at me with that damned expression that I hate so much. I felt like I hurt him. I honestly didn't mean to, but my thoughts were so jumbled, the words came out harsh.

"Okay, Keith. I'll…be across the hall. If you need me." I didn't respond, I only looked away as he softly shut the door and left. What was wrong with me? No apologies, no sympathy, and no regard to his feelings. But I didn't move, I only laid on my bed and regretted before the warm stream of tears came gushing from my swollen eyes.