Chapter Text
Lance loved his team, he really did! He loved the way Hunk would always make sure there was some extra food for him if he was late to breakfast. He loved how when Pidge did something, she would go for it with 120%. He loved how Keith was always ready to fight anyone for his team, even if that had brought them in multiple sticky situations already. And he loved how Shiro would tell them how great they had been on the battlefield, even if Lance often wasn’t the one the praise was directed at. He loved them all. And that’s why he lets them make snarky comments at him from time to time.
He didn’t really have an evident place in the team. He apparently wasn’t the sharpshooter, he wasn’t as well trained as Keith and Shiro, he wasn’t as handy and smart as Pidge and Hunk, so he did what he did best to contribute in some way. He cracked jokes, let others laugh at his expanse, made sure everyone was okay and that they had eaten enough, always checked up on Pidge and whether she went to sleep already, talked to Shiro if he had one of his nightmares again, helped Hunk through his anxiety attacks, trained with Keith if the red paladin wasn’t able to sleep, and so he could go on for awhile. It’s what he does. He takes care of others when they can’t or won’t take care of themselves.
Even if that means he has to forget about his own needs sometimes.
He’s used to it. He’s the oldest brother of 5 little siblings and then he’s not even taking the nieces and nephews into account. Lance loves taking care of people, it makes him feel wanted and needed. He doesn’t know which one he likes more.
The thing is, it’s just not as important as what the others do. He can’t contribute much in finding new alliances for example. Sure, he’s good with people (and aliens for that matter), but he’s never the one talking to the leaders. It’s always either Shiro, Allura, or Coran. And that’s fine! He totally understands, but that doesn’t mean that he can’t feel a little useless from time to time during some missions.
He’s more important back at the castle. He makes sure everyone is okay, and they can let their frustrations out with and at him. That’s important too! At least, that’s what he tries to tell himself when he starts feeling down again.
Back on earth he used to have these so-called ‘moods’. He never came up with a better name for it, because that’s all he wanted it to be. A mood.
He didn’t want to be this sad, droopy kid. He wanted to be happy and enthusiastic and energetic. Everyone gets sad time from time, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Just because that when these moods happen his sadness feels a little heavier than normal, doesn’t mean he needs special treatment or something.
So yeah, just a mood. Nothing else.
Thing was, he had been in this mood for quite a few days. He tried to not let it get to him too much, but it slowly started to take a toll on him. He hadn’t slept well for at least a week now, even though that also had to do with staying up late because of Pidge and Keith, and the multiple attacks didn’t really help either. Either way, it had been a rough week for him. All he wanted to do was get some rest.
Lance opened the door to his bedroom, made his way over to the bed, and let himself fall down on it.
“Ah, finally some peace and quiet-”
Suddenly the alarms started blaring and Allura’s voice could be heard over the castle’s speakers.
“Paladins! We are under attack! I repeat, we are under attack! Gather as quickly as possible!”
Lance couldn’t help but sigh and roll his eyes. He knew for a fact that this was a practice run. He had heard Coran and Allura discussing it earlier today. He thought about just staying in bed, but he knew these runs were important and Allura wouldn’t be too happy about it if he skipped one. So he opted for getting up, grabbing his bayard, and running towards the command center.
As he turned the corner he ran into Keith at full speed, knocking them both down to the ground.
“Ow. Shit.” Lance stood up and rubbed the sore spot on his back before holding out a hand to Keith.
“Sorry, didn’t see you coming.”
Keith just rolled his eyes. “Obviously.” That could have hurt Lance’s feelings, were it not for the fact that Keith did accept Lance’s hand to help him get up.
“We’d better hurry. I don’t think Allura is going to appreciate it if we’re there late.” Keith nodded and they both made a run for it.
They were the last ones to arrive. He guessed their timing was a little off, and judging from Allura’s facial expression it wasn’t bad, but it could be a hell of lot better too.
“You’re later than normal paladins. All of you! I expected better from you all. We’re at a war here, and it’s of the upmost importance to be ready at all times.” Everyone solemnly nodded along to her words, already knowing the chewed out riddle.
Allura frowned. “You all seem distracted.”
“Well, it’s been a long week princess. We’ve had many missions and I think most of us were getting ready for bed.” Shiro pointedly looked at Keith and Pidge who both seemed to ignore their leader and looked at everything else instead.
Shaking her head Allura restarted her speech again. “That won’t do. Like I said, you must be ready at all times! We never know when the Galra will attack!”
Lance couldn’t help but think of his bed back at home. It had a lot of blankets and pillows. Oh, how nice would it be to just lay under those familiar sheets and smell his mama’s cooking again. His head resting on a comfortable pillow, his favourite pyjamas on, just totally relaxed-
“Lance!”
Lance shot up, only now noticing he had been nodding off while standing. How the hell did that happen?
“I don’t appreciate you not listening and ignoring my words. At. All.” She made sure to punctuate the last words to make sure Lance knew how serious she was. “You need to focus! Don’t you understand? The life’s of everyone in the universe are at stake! We can’t just slack off.”
Lance shrunk a little into himself with each harsh word thrown at him. He knew she was right, he didn’t know how he had let it happen either.
“I’m sorry princess, it won’t happen again.”
That seemed to calm her down and her expression softened. “Very well then, let’s continue. I want to discuss some attack manoeuvres and the bonds with your lions since we’re here anyway.”
Lance had to suppress a groan. Even though he was quite interested in the bonds with their lions, all he wanted to do now was sleep. But he followed the others their lead, and sat down. This was going to be a long night.
“The fact that they have been able to find us for this long, is quite worrisome.” Allura’s voices sounded loud and clear through the room, even though she had been talking for quite some time now. The Galra still were able to find them, wherever they went. “And the fact that we don’t know the source of this problem is almost even more worrying.”
They had already ruled out the option that it could be Keith or Allura after they pulled that stupid stunt. Shiro had insisted it was him, but that was pretty unbelievable. Pidge had already checked his arm multiple times and they had ran some scans, but no tracker of some sorts had been found. So what was it?
Suddenly an idea popped into Lance’s head. “Maybe they’re tracking our lions!”
Everyone stared at him before Pidge let out a chuckle. “Nice try Lance, but that’s actually kind of impossible. We would know if there was any tracking device in or on the lions.”
“Well, what other options are there? If it’s not us, and it’s not the castle, then it must be the lions!” Lance knew he was having some sort of breakthrough here, but the others apparently didn’t see it.
“Let it go Lance, it’s just not possible.”
“But it doesn’t have to be a tracker, it could be-”
“There aren’t a lot of other possibilities. It’s not the lions, believe me.”
“Just let me explain, I think-”
“Maybe you should let all that thinking be done by us.”
“But-”
“Just shut up Lance!”
Lance was taken aback by the harshness in Pidge her voice. She seemed to be shocked by it too, but not one to back down, she continued. “I’ve ran so many tests already. Just ask Hunk.”
“It’s true buddy. We’ve ran a lot of tests. There are almost no possibilities left.” Hunk’s voice was soft and gentle, much nicer than that of Pidge. Lance always was grateful for his best friend.
“There must be something...” Lance muttered to himself.
Allura sighed. “Let’s continue.”