Chapter Text
"Newfound Friend"
A small, hooded figure, clutching a satchel, snuck out of the palace on Altea, unseen by anyone. He knew all the secret passages in and out of the palace. He quickly and quietly made his way to an abandoned house in an out of the way neighborhood. Even though there were abandoned houses, the king made sure they had running water and electricity, so none of his citizens would be cold in the winter, hot in the summer, caught in the rain and catch a cold, have to be dirty, or go without something to drink. The figure knew this as he was Prince Lance.
The prince had a reason why he was outside the palace in the middle of the night. The previous quintant, he had escaped his guards and was exploring some of the abandoned neighborhoods, when he heard a whining sound coming from the barn that sat on the property of an old farmhouse. It sounded like a wounded animal. Lance was an animal lover and tried to care for any animal he found wounded, even though he was only four-deca-phoebes-old. When he crept into the barn, he was immediately ambushed by...Lance looked at who had pounced on him. It wasn't an animal; it was an alien kid. Lance blinked as he stared at the kid. He knew this species, even though the kid was dirty, he could tell this kid was a Galra, or part Galra anyway.
Suddenly, the Galra kid backed up, realizing he was pinning down another kid. Lance sat up and gave a small wave. "Hi. I'm Lance."
The young Galra whimpered but didn't speak. Lance could understand that the kid was scared and wanted to help him. "Hey. You don't hafta stay in this barn. The house up there has water and stuff. No one lives there, and no one will find you, if you don't want them to." Seeing the Galra's ears perk up at that news, Lance smiled. "I can come with ya and even get soap later on."
The Galra kid nodded slowly and let Lance lead him into the house. Lance had gotten a good look at the kid in the light of the house. He had black hair that looked matted and might have been in a braid at some point, his eyes were purple with yellow sclera, and his fur was so dirty it looked black, but he had dark streaks on his cheeks. His ears were fluffy but just as dirty as the rest of him.
Lance had decided then and there that he would help wash his new friend, so he had packed his satchel with soap, shampoo, conditioner, cotton swabs, toothpaste, a toothbrush, a comb, a brush, de-tangling spray, a couple of towels, and anything else he could find. Most of the things he grabbed were brand new but looked like the things the servants used during his bath time.
When Lance entered the house, he whistled softly, and the Galra kid cautiously peeked around the corner but relaxed when he saw it was Lance. He chirped in welcome, and his ears flicked at the sight of Lance's bag. Lance smiled. "Let's get you clean."
The Galra reluctantly followed Lance into the wash room, where the Altean ran the tub. He let the other kid strip out of the rags he had been wearing and sit in the tub. Lance had to drain and refill the tub several times to get all the grime and filth off of his new friend. He was surprised to find out that the Galra kid was actually a soft violet in color with darker violet cheek stripes and even more surprised to find that his hair wasn't black but actually two toned, violet on top and magenta underneath. Once the water stopped turning black with dirt and grime, Lance helped wash his friends hair and the Galra boy washed his body. Between the two boys, the cleaning took a good varga, but the difference was remarkable.
Lance dried his friend's hair while the kid dried his body. Once his body was dry, Lance offered him some clothes of his. There were some darker colored clothes that Lance didn't like; he liked the brighter colors (his favorite color was blue, just like his eyes and Altean markings). It took another varga to untangle the violet and magenta hair, but Lance managed to get it to lay flat.
The other kid yawned, showing off his fangs. Lance was nervous about helping his friend clean his teeth, so he just nudged the toothbrush and toothpaste in his direction. "I can't stay too much longer as someone will miss me, but I felt like this was a good idea. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"
The Galra kid nodded and looked at Lance's satchel, Lance realizing that there were more supplies in there that the other kid may want to use on his own. "I'll leave this here, and you can use anything in here if ya wanna." Lance paused at the entrance to the wash room and gave a small wave just like he did when they first met and was rewarded with a small smile.
Lance quietly stole back into the palace and back into his room, not knowing that someone spotted him coming back into the palace.
Fin