'Disgusting.'
As he glared bitterly at his reflection in the mirror, the yellows of his eyes seemingly glowing in the dim light of his new room, that lone word relentlessly taunted the Galra prince's mind, its silent mocking ringing endlessly in his ears till he thought he was going to go mad. Glancing down at his hand, he studied the worn pages of the small Altean booklet he had "borrowed" from the ship's library when Coran wasn't looking, his eyes once again carefully scanning the same line of text that he had been scrutinizing over for the past varga to ensure that he wholly understood every aspect of the procedure it was describing. It seemed so simple and yet he had been sitting in that same spot for what felt like a small eternity without seeing so much as a hint of success; there had to be something that he was missing.
'You know what's missing. You know why you can't do it.' His doubts hissed quietly from where they sat huddled in the darkest corner of his mind, their voices ironically sounding much like the harsh tone of his late father.
'You're wrong. I can do this. I merely must have overlooked something-'
"Aha! I knew I wasn't crazy! You did take something!"
Lotor nearly jumped clear out of his skin as he whirled around to discover Coran towering behind him, his face sporting the smug smirk of a cop who had just caught a crook redhanded.
"Isn't it your policy on this ship to knock before entering a room?" the Galra grumbled whilst casually attempting to hide the booklet behind his back, doing his best to sound annoyed with hopes that it would conceal his inner embarrassment.
"Yes. You know what else is a policy of ours? Asking before you take something!" Coran squawked tartly, one hand resting on his hip while he expectantly held out the other. "Come on now; give it here! Fortunately for you, I'm willing to let this be your warning if you cooperate! Hurry it up!"
Lotor's eyes fell to the floor as he slowly drew the booklet out from behind him and sheepishly placed it in Coran's hand when he brushed past him before attempting to retreat into the safety of the hall, but he didn't get far before the elder gentleman reached out and grab him.
"Where do you think you're going? I'm not done with you yet! Now, let's see what we've got here..." Coran exclaimed, his grip on Lotor's wrist tightening as he dramatically flipped over the book to read the cover. However, as the goldish yellow lettering of the title winked playfully up at him, his bushy eyebrows scrunched together in such a way that it appeared as if he had a second mustache stuck to his forehead. " 'My First Transfiguration: A Child's Guide to Shapeshifting'? Huh, that's not what I was expecting at all. Why were you reading..."
Coran's voice tapered off as realization dawned upon him, and his expression softened as he slowly glanced up at the prince, the shame in his blue and yellow eyes confirming the Altean's suspicions. After glancing back down at the booklet once more, he gave a heavy sigh and slipped it back into Lotor's hand, much to the latter's surprise.
"Make sure this makes it back into the library before Allura notices that it's gone." he whispered in the prince's ear before quietly making his way towards the door.
"Coran, wait!" Lotor called before the redhead could disappear. When the aforementioned stop and turned to him, he shyly glanced down at the booklet and spoke in a voice barely above a whisper, "Please do not tell anyone about this..."
When no response came for several ticks, the prince's heart staggered in its steady rhythm, but upon raising his eyes, he noticed the wisecracking Altean giving him a sympathetic smile.
"Tell them what?" he crowed coyly, and with a knowing wink, he then disappeared, the door sliding shut behind him.
It took Lotor a tick to realize that he was holding his breath, and as his heart rate returned to a normal pace, he slowly eased himself back into his original spot on the stool by the mirror and opened the manual once again. Silently uttering the words on the page to himself again to ensure that his memory of them hadn't faded or changed, he proceeded to close his eyes and wait, focusing all his energy on the image of his mother, of Coran, of Allura.
Slowly, he allowed his eyes to flutter open, and with a sinking feeling in his gut, he was greeted by those same fangs, those same eyes, those same claws, that same skin, once again.
'Disgusting.'