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The paladins have just been through quite a lot. They defeated Lotor, closed the rifts to the quintessence fields by giving up the Castle of Lions, and they got Shiro back finally. Many things occurred in such a small amount of time and now they plan to head back to Earth.
“Earth huh… it’s been so long. I was starting to think I’d never see home again.” Hunk said.
“Yeah, I’m excited to see my dad again… and my mom.” Pidge adds, reaching for a communicator to contact Matt and let him know. Maybe he’ll want to come join her and they can all be together again.
“You know I’ve never been to Earth, interested in seeing all that it has to offer.” Coran spoke with enthusiasm and mustache twirls.
“We’re all excited but it’s a long journey, we should be resting up soon.”
“Yes Princess.” Everyone replied.
Krolia and Keith helps Shiro into the black lion as everyone makes for their respective lions with company.
“Hey… Keith?”
“Yeah Lance?”
“Can I talk to you for a minute?”
Keith paused for a moment and looks back at Lance. Searching his face, he debated for a moment if it could wait for another day since he was desperate to see Shiro get rest but Lance’s face was one of rare seriousness. One that reminded Keith of the day Lance offered to step down. This was something he’d want to hear.
“Sure.” Letting Shiro’s weight go to Krolia, Keith walks down the platform to reach Lance.
“What is it?”
Lance takes a deep breath and stares right at Keith into his eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“Excuse me? Sorry for what? If this is about the Shiro warning you thing then don’t worry about it, none of us knew and-“
“No, not that…”
Keith raised a quirked brow, not completely convinced with Lance still red eye from earlier.
“Well that isn’t what I wanted to apologize for.”
“Then what?”
“I just wanted to say sorry for-well, everything.”
“Where is thi-“
“Uhbuhbuhbuhbuh, no, let me finish.” Lance held up a hand in gesture to stop before continuing. “I’m sorry I was such a jerk to you. I apologize for all the horrible things I said to you I the past. I’m sorry for accusing you for wanting the Black Lion for yourself. I’m sorry I mocked you sometimes and that I was overall not a great teammate. I apologize, and I know it’ll never be enough, but I had to say it or else I’d regret it for the rest of my life.”
Keith was floored, this day was pretty insane, but this was the last thing he was expecting to happen… and he thought clone Shiro’s were high up on the list.
“Lance I… don’t know what to say. I mean, where did all of this come from?”
“I’ve… thought it for a while but I just never… could say it.”
“Why?”
“At first I didn’t want to admit it. For a long time you were a sort of goal. A person to be… a person to beat. I wanted to beat you to show that I was better… that I was worth something if I could surpass the greatest. But I never could beat you. I was mad and frustrated at myself for that but I couldn’t admit it so I blamed you for everything else. I do that a lot. I put the blame on everyone else when I need to take responsibility for my own actions.”
“I appreciate the sentiment but what brought this on?”
“Well, it was a few different things. Mostly, ever since you were gone, I hadn’t really been fighting anyone and with all the alone time, I can to think about various things. About how much I missed home, about my time at the Garrison, about how much I wanted Shiro to trust me like how he trusted you and how much I wanted to help out the team but couldn’t. I wanted to prove to myself that I was great but I couldn’t and I came to… well not a realization but more of a… confirmation? Confrontation? Anyways, I had to face that no one was responsible for my position in life other than me and I needed to apologize for all the blame I put on you.”
“Lance I-“
"I know that apologizing won’t make up for everything that I’ve done and said. I know I was the biggest jerk and I can’t imagine it’ll be easy for you to forgive me. I don’t expect you to take me all that seriously, but I hope you understand that I’m being sincere, and I hope someday that you’ll forgive me and maybe we’ll get to be a really good team and perhaps even friends. You’re a really good guy and cool and I’d be honored to fly and fight with you again. That is, if you’ll stay with the team.”
“Yeah... I’ll be staying and you don’t know how much it means to hear you say that. I thought you really hated me.”
“I never hated you. I always admired you and thought you were great… and I hated that I couldn’t be you.”
“Trust me, I wasn’t that great. I got into fights all the time and I got my own problems.”
“Yeah but Shiro saw something in you worth looking out for. Something I could only have dreamed of. I’m sure whatever fights you got into, it was for good reasons.”
“We’ll agree to disagree.”
“So, you will be able to forgive me?”
“Yeah, I can Lance.”
Lance smiled one of the biggest smiles since he was launched into space. “I’m glad. Thanks for hearing me out. I just wanted to make sure you knew that.”
“I appreciate that.” They waved each other off as they start towards their lions. “Oh, and Lance?”
“Hm?” Lance looks back to see Keith smiling at him.
“The Lance I see now is pretty great, nothing to prove or otherwise.”