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Keith was training in the castle's training room when he noticed the door was open and he just missed someone walk in. "Who's there? Show yourself!" He said firmly, taking a few steps forward. Lance glanced up from where he was putting away clean sweat towels when he heard Keith's voice. "Chill. I'm just doing duties." Lance scoffed at his rival, rolling his eyes "why are you so jumpy?"
Keith relaxed a bit and crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm not jumpy. I'm always on high alert." Lance rolled his eyes at Keith's words.
"That's the same thing." He huffed as he turned his eyes back to putting the cleaned sweat towels onto the shelf. Keith put down the weights he had been lifting and walked over.
"Whatcha doing, Lance?" Keith asked, Lance glanced at his rival and raised an eyebrow at his curiosity. "Duties." He said firmly and bluntly, glancing back at the towels he was putting away- as if it wasn't obvious what he was doing. Keith smiled sarcastically and leaned against the wall, "Must be a boring day then. Aren't you gonna insult me? I insult you all the time. Let's see you insult me!" Keith smirked, but Lance just narrowed his eyes
"I'm busy Keith." He scoffed, finishing with the towels and starting out of the training room.
Lance had disobeyed Shiro during the last mission and did something impulsive- which despite the fact what Lance did saved the people they were saving, he was in trouble for it and now he was given everybody's duties to do for 2 days.
Keith followed Lance thoughtlessly, wanting to egg Lance on. "Come on, what's wrong with you today? No clever retort? You insult me and I insult you. You're supposed to say something back!" Keith huffed with a smug smirk as he followed a few steps behind Lance. Lance silently groaned and ignored Keith, continuing walking.
Lance would be lying if he said everything about that mission didn't really annoy him. The mission would've been a complete failure if Lance hadn't done what he did, yet he was being punished for doing what he did. He did it to save the mission. At least that's what he was telling himself to avoid the real reason he did it. Lance continued walking toward the laundry room to bring the empty laundry bin back, his mind way too focused on how frustrated he was about this punishment to even think about insulting Keith back and being rivals with him
Keith just continued to follow Lance towards the laundry room, a frown on his face now. "Dude, what's up with you? Why can't you just play along? You're being such a buzzkill." Keith rolled his eyes at Lance as he walked beside him. Lance still continued ignoring Keith with a roll of his eyes- as he walked past the kitchen, he glanced to the side and a few seconds later once what he saw processed- he stopped dead in his tracks. He took a couple steps back- looking into the kitchen from the hallway. His eyes widened, he had never seen such a dirty and trashed kitchen. He had just cleaned the kitchen while he was waiting for the laundry to be done earlier today. Lance groaned loudly and frustratedly started walking down the hall towards the laundry room again. He turned into the laundry room and practically chucked the empty bin into the bin closet. Keith trailed into the laundry room behind and watched as lance threw the empty laundry bin. "Wow. Someone's angry." Keith laughed before leaning against the doorframe.
"What's up with the dirty kitchen?" Keith asked calmly, genuinely curious- but he did have a slight teasing tone in his voice.
"I don't know Keith! I have no fucking clue what's up with the dirty kitchen, I just cleaned in an hour ago! -- Just like how I just did laundry and the stupid washing machine is full again! What the hell?!" Lance shouted, his frustration taking over. He put the detergent into the washing machine, slammed it closed and turned it on. "Woah, dude, calm down." Keith said, chuckling a bit.
"Looks like someone needs to get laid." He chuckled. Lance narrowed his eyes and was about to respond when Shiro appeared in the doorway
"Lance, someone spilt water all over the sweat towels- they need to be cleaned again. Oh, and you missed quite a few of the-" Shiro got interrupted by Lance angrily pushing past him, purposely bumping Shiro's shoulder and storming off towards his bedroom. Keith went to follow Lance over to his room, still trying to mess with him. "Lance! Dude you need to-" Keith started but got interrupted by the loud slam of an opening bedroom door. He chuckled. "He's mad."
Lance had slammed his door and practically slid down the wall next to the door- putting his head into his hands, Keith walked over and opened the door slightly. "Lance, dude, what are you doing?" he asked, earning a frustrated groan from Lance.
"God Keith, just Screw off! Will you ever learn when to stop?! I don't want to deal with you today Keith, I have more things on my plate to deal with than you being fucking annoying! Just screw off Keith- stop being an asshole all the god damn time!" Lance screamed at Keith as Keith opened the door slightly. Lance glared at Keith from where he was sitting on the ground of his bedroom. His voice cracked slightly as he screamed this and it almost looked like Lance had angry tears building up.
Keith looked slightly shocked and also a bit worried over Lance's condition but decided it was probably just better to back off for now."Alright, alright, take it easy, dude. I'm going." Keith pulled the door shut quietly and walked back to his room, and once Keith was gone- feeling extremely angry and overwhelmed, Lance completely broke down into tears on his bedroom floor.
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All day- Lance had been short with everyone and irritated about everything, and then nobody could find him. Nobody had seen Lance since 3pm and it was getting a little weird, being 8pm now. "It's already 8 PM. Lance...where are you?" Keith whispered to himself as he was walking around the castle of lions, looking for Lance. After about half hour of looking, Keith finally found Lance. He was on the ground in the very back off the library behind one of the shelves. Lance had his back against the wall, his knees pulled up to his chest, and his arms wrapped around his legs. Keith's eyes widened as he sees Lance and walked over quietly . "Lance, oh god, what happened!? Are you all right?" Keith said with concern in his voice as he knelt down beside Lance.
Lance was slightly surprised that Keith was looking for him still and concerned about him- considering they're rivals and he sighed. "I'm fine." Lance said coldly, not moving even an inch. Keith was now visibly upset over Lance's cold and short reply. "You're obviously not fine, Lance. You've been gone the entire day. You were angry at everyone. And now you're here, in the library, behind a shelf, knees pulled up and back propped against the wall." Keith said, narrowing his eyes. Lance didn't seem to want to, but after a few seconds he glanced at Keith.
"I'm just tired. Tired of just life in general. Tired of everyone treating me like shit because I didn't obey Shiro." Lance scoffed coldly, his eyes locking back onto the floor. Keith looked concerned since what Lance said sparked a bit of curiosity about what Lance's mental state was at the moment, but he was also slightly angry over how Lance worded his sentence.
"Lance, you put everyone at risk. You did good in saving the people we were sent to save. But it all could've gone wrong because you acted on impulse instead of listening to Shiro." Keith explained, earning a scoff from Lance.
"Right. I forgot that when a leader puts an entire civilization in jeopardy, I'm supposed to just sit there and let their lives get taken from them. I guess I also forgot that making a mission that is set in stone to fail successful is just so wrong of me." Lance scoffed with a 'tch' and a roll of his eyes. Keith stood up and placed his hands on his hips, glaring at Lance. "Okay first off," Keith started. "Shiro didn't put the entire civilization in jeopardy. That was your impulse.- Second of all, he only told you to wait for backup. He wasn't telling you to do nothing. But you acted on impulse instead of listening to orders. The mission ended up succeeding, which was great. But it could've gone very, very wrong." Keith started to practically lecture Lance, who rolled his eyes and stood up as well. "The only life I put in danger by my impulse was my own. So I don't see an issue. What I did was the only reason the mission was successful and that civilization survived." Lance scoffed coldly, crossing his arms over his chest defensively.
Keith was going to start talking again when he stopped and processed that. Lance had just said he didn't see an issue with putting his own life in danger "Lance...did you hear what you just said? 'The only life I put in danger was my own.' And you don't see an issue with that?" Keith asked, taking his hands off his hips and letting them hang to his sides.
"You're part of the team. Not just because you're a paladin but because you're one of our friends. We care about you Lance, And when you do risky actions like that, we worry." Keith said, more gently than his voice was anytime before. "Even Shiro was concerned over you.
You could've died, Lance." When Keith said this, Lance sighed and glanced down
"That was the point..." Lance admitted quietly, referring to how he could've died- tears welling up in his eyes. It took a second and then Keith realized.
When Lance did that impulse, he didn't expect it to work. He expected to die. He had tried to kill himself. Keith looked shocked as he took a step forward. "Are you...." Keith started. "Lance, are saying when you acted.. You- didn't expect to make it...alive?" Keith asked hesitantly, Lance nodding as tears started to roll down his face. Keith looked even more shocked and concerned. "…..oh, Lance.... Lance, you can't do that." Keith said and paused for a moment, noticing the tears falling. "Lance, are you...okay? Really okay?" Keith asked and Lance wiped his tears, forcing a small chuckle "no, no i'm really not..." Lance said quietly, his voice cracking a little. Keith walked over to Lance and put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm worried about you, Lance." Keith said with a pause after it.
"Would you like to talk about it?" Keith asked, his voice soft and comforting. It was the first time Lance had seen Keith's softer side and he was surprised at such a different side of his rival. Lance nodded and wiped some of his tears away.
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It had been a couple weeks since that day in the library. As far as Keith knew- Lance wasn't struggling as much, but he wasn't extremely concerned- only just slightly since Lance promised he wouldn't try to kill himself again. He didn't know how bad it really was though, and didn't know how much he could count on that promise- so he was on guard to say the least.
They were in the middle of a battle, Keith and Lance fighting hard to survive the last ship. Things were looking okay at first. However, as more minutes passed, the battle shifted and things looked bad for them- Keith and Lance both were fighting to stay alive and not get killed by the Galra ship. They looked tired as time passed and they both knew they couldn't fight much longer. "Lance, are you-" Keith started to say but was interrupted by both Galra and the ship firing at them.
Overall today had been a really bad day for Lance, but he had promised Keith he wouldn't try to kill himself again. He had promised Keith he would try and stop, yet he was not having a very good day and he was really tired of fighting. When Keith got interrupted by the ship firing at them, Lance immediately noticed it heading straight towards Keith. "Keith look ou-!" Lance yelled through his helmet, but stopped himself mid sentence when something popped into his head. Lance's eyes darted around for a moment before he sighed. "I'm sorry Keith." Lance said into the helmet, before he piloted his lion directly into the line of fire that was heading for Keith.
Keith didn't have any time to react to the incoming fire. He turned his head to look at Lance and noticed him piloting his lion directly into the path of the incoming fire. It was in that moment that Keith realized what Lance was doing. In that moment, Keith felt his heart sink. Before he realized it, Keith yelled through his helmet. "Lance, no, don't do this!" Keith yelled, knowing it was too late. Lance had went directly into the incoming fire- saving Keith from it.
The last thing Lance heard, being Keith yelling for him to not do it before everything around him faded to darkness. Keith watched in horror as Lance piloted right into the line of fire and got hit. Lance promised Keith that he wouldn't kill himself under and circumstance. If Lance finished his sentence telling Keith to look out, Keith would've had the time to move, but Lance had stopped himself from saying it.
Lance made Keith a promise.
He broke his promise.
Keith sat there stunned and shaking for a couple of minutes, not knowing what to do. He finally talked into the radio in his helmet. "Lance....Lance, come in." There was no response. Keith's heart sunk as reality hit him.
Lance was gone.
Keith sat alone, staring into the darkness of his helmet. For hours he just sat. It felt like his entire world was shattered. He had lost friends before but this was different. Keith's eyes darted around the darkness. "Lance?" Keith whispered, in a soft, small voice. "Lance, where are you?" Keith was in denial that he was gone, he expected a voice to come from the radio on his helmet with only Lance's voice.
But Lance was dead,
And Keith was alone.