What they don't know

Part 4

After flying for a throughout the night - or at least what the castle had convinced them was night time - Keith had tiredly suggested a break and they had set down on the nearest inhabitable planet. Alec hadn't actually needed to stay awake like the Paladins did, as Red normally opted to fly herself, but the promise he'd made to Lance before he left rung through his head anytime his eyes started drooping. He knew Red would wake him up if he was needed and would be able to handle things on her own even without him but they both knew his cover would be blown in that case.

So instead, he had been left bored, staring out the dashboard, watching the stars until they made him dizzy. The rare chatter over the Comms was dull and meaningless, purely there to fill the silence. It didn't interest him in the slightest. Not that it mattered since they always managed to forget that he was there anyway.

He couldn't see why Lance adored them all so much. They rarely seemed to make time exclusively for him, only comforted him if he was upset about someone else's misfortune and just generally seemed to discard him in favour of someone else. While he had only been impersonating Lance for a few weeks now (or maybe a month or so - he'd never been good at keeping track of time and being in space certainly didn't help), he'd already seen an array of negative interactions directed towards Lance.

He clambered down the ramp with a sigh. Sometimes Lance's persona made his life unnecessarily hard. He knew Lance didn't always have that much energy and certainly wasn't always in the mood to crack jokes so why did he always have to act like he did. Now it was just an expectation that he had to fill out to avoid suspicion.

He grumbled at the thought of Lance laying out these expectations purely to make it more difficult for impersonators like himself before shaking his head and plastering on a light smile, bounding up to the group full of fake positivity.

The big yellow one - Hunk, his memory supplied - offered him a tired smile in greeting, turning back to Pidge when he smiled back. The rest of the group paid him no acknowledgement, instead branching off into their own already-chosen groups. Alec held back a growl at the clear neglect, giving himself a minute or two to himself to decide on the best course of action and calm himself before he did anything rash.

Absentmindedly, he fiddled with his gauntlet, fingers tracing over the faded edges, following the faded scorch marks and scratches in mesmerising circles until his breaths faded from his thoughts and his mind was made up. He paused for a second, eyes running over his brother's Paladin armour. It had definitely seen better days. He winced subconsciously, imagining the angry look Lance would probably give him when he noticed how badly he'd been taking care of his suit - or his lion for that matter.

After a bit of thought, he eventually decided upon learning a bit about his travel companions. Hunk and Pidge seemed to be the closest to Lance from what he'd been told and he had a pretty good idea on how Lance would act around them both. With his mind made up, he began his search for the two Paladins.

He found them hanging out around the Yellow Lion, the Green Paladin perched on the machines paw, tinkering with her laptop while the Yellow Paladin tended to the damage on his lion. Alec re-plastered a beaming smile in his face over the glum frown that had already formed, forcing a bounce into his step and bounded towards the two of them.

However, before he even let any words spill out of his mouth he was intercepted by the ginger Altean (he couldn't for the life of him remember how his name was pronounced) and Keith's mother, Krolia. The two dragged him away, his 'friends' only sparing him a few nonchalant glances as he left their space.

The three of them settled by the Blue Lion, Krolia stood a little to the side with an almost cold expression masking her face while Coran stood a little closer than Alec was comfortable with.