What they don't know

Part 5

The only thing he had left giving him the slightest semblance of time was the strict schedule Matt seemed to stick to everyday. Every morning (or that's what Lance was calling it at least), Lance seemed to always wake up feeling jetlagged trying to adjust to Matt's routine. He'd forgotten how hard it had been to adjust to the Blades' time zone a year before and, even further back than that, how much he'd struggled to adapt to the Castle's altean times. Both times had made him incredibly late on multiple occasions and earned him scoldings from various people (mostly Allura and Shiro). 

Today, he'd rolled out of bed at a time that he couldn't read. Figures that aliens wouldn't use any earthern numbering systems. Matt had already left. He'd been doing that a lot; leaving early in the morning and returning late at night after Lance had already given up trying to keep his eyes open.

Still in the too-large, comfy clothes Matt had lent him, Lance located the food Matt always left wrapped up for him. None of it was something Lance had tried before but it couldn't be worse than the Blades' food. Somehow, he'd never realised until he started living with them that they were carnivores. Too much meat in his diet for his taste. The whole experience had left him considering becoming vegetarian. There was only so much meat a person could take.
The rebel's food appeared to be a strict mixture of foods separated into food groups on a tray wrapped in something similar to that transparent, plastic wrap that Lance had somehow never learned the name for. 
The food itself was cold, like it always was, but Lance couldn't tell if the food was just served cold or if it had been dropped off long enough ago that it had cooled down by now. 

He sat down on the bed, bouncing a little indulgently, and placed the tray down on his lap. The tray's categories looked similar to the posters Lance had always seen around the cafeteria at the Garrison that talked about the recommended intake for each food group. Or, it looked like someone had tried to plot it out from memory alone with risky alien equivalents. 
By that, he meant thick yellow bean-like things heaped onto one section, a smaller section of sweet pink spheres that clung to each other stubbornly coupled with dried out, evenly cut, meat strips that was decked in so much salt Lance could barely feel his tongue afterwards. The final section he guessed to be something similar to vegetables but if they were secretly seedless strawberries painted in garish orange and purple patterns. 

He ate slowly as his thoughts ran uncharacteristically slow. Since his arrival on the ship, he hadn't been the most productive - not to Lance's standards at least. It had been a couple days but he had yet to leave Matt's room. Partly out of confused caution but mostly out of fear. Matt had never had the chance to give Lance a tour so he was partly cautious of wandering around on his own for fear of getting lost. Some ever-present sinking feeling gave him the impression that the rebels didn't want him here and wouldn't react to kindly to him sneaking around. Matt had been leaving food for him everyday and the room had just about everything he needed so, on paper, he had no good reason to ever leave. Besides, Matt had never actually said he could leave the room yet. 
He placed his tray with the wrapping balled up on top of it into a compartment that Lance had recently discovered to act similar to a dishwasher except the washing was sent away at the end. Lance was still shoving down the whisper of a thought that suggested that it might actually be a waste disposal or something of the sort. 
Matt hadn't talked to him at all, actually. Not since he'd dropped him off at the room. It was all giving Lance bad vibes. He didn't have any back up plans or safehouses. If he couldn't make this work with the rebels, he was on his own. 

Did Matt even want him here? Why was Lance here? Did Matt just feel sorry for him? Was that why he saved him? Or did he blame him for his sister's death? For the fact that they never found her? Did he think Lance gave up too soon? Was he going to kill him? Would Lance even blame him?