Red ~ // Klance

10 - Things I Didn't Know I Missed

It was dinner time and the paladins, Keith, and Krolia were in the dining hall.

Hunk and Coran were setting up the food while everyone else chatted about the whole lion situation.

Keith was wrapped in a thin gray blanket on the verge of falling asleep while Lance not so casually stared at him.

"C'mon, don't tell me your tired. You've been sleeping half the day" Lance smiled at Keith's constant sleepy face.

"I'm not tired." Keith rubbed his eyes, trying to keep himself from yawning.

"Are you sure? The Lion unlocked it's jaw a while ago and you were still sleeping when it opened." Shiro asked, placing a kind hand on Keith's shoulder.

"When did it open?" Keith questioned, suddenly more awake.

"Let's see, maybe an hour or so before Krolia got here. We were going to wake you guys up but she wanted you two to sleep." Pidge pulled up a chart of the lion's temperature readings. "The time the temperature control came back on was pretty in line with when she unlocked."

"So we could have gotten out earlier? How come Red unlocked in our sleep rather than when we stopped fighting?" Lance asked.

"Well she probably thought you guys were adorable so she wasn't mad anymore. Man I never thought I'd see the day were you guys would cuddle." Hunk gushed, plopping down into his seat with a glowing smile.

"Hunk! Not cool." Blushing, Lance angrily started eating.

"You never did tell me you had gotten a mate Keith." Krolia frowned in Keith and Lance's direction.

"Lance is not my boyfriend! He's just a friend." Keith's face went an uncomfortable shade of crimson as the entire group turned in his direction.

"You don't need to hide anything from me. I'm not mad, I just wished you would have told me about him." Krolia sighed.

"No, I can assure you that Keith and I are not dating." Lance waved everyone's skeptical looks away with his hand and just hoped that no one could see how warm his face felt.

"Ah my bad then, you two just seemed so close with the cuddling and grooming. It reminded me of my relationship with your father Keith." Krolia pondered, grinning at some of her old memories.

"Grooming?" Keith looked at his mom in confusion before following her eyes up to his hair.

Lance internally cursed at himself as he watched Keith reach up to touch the loose braid on top of his head that had somehow managed to hold together.

"Lance? I don't remember braiding my hair?" Keith could practically feel the nervousness radiating off the boy across from him.

"I uh-" Lance was about ready to fall over his words as he looked for what to say.

"It's no big deal. It's just a braid." Keith pulled up the braided strands to look at himself in the reflection of his glass.

About half the table was confused at Keith's response. If this had happened a few months ago then a fight would have surely happened.

Keith wasn't too comfortable with people playing with his hair, especially Lance. So his calmness was a big relief to the others.

Everyone laughed a little as they watched Keith curiosily poke at his braid. When the amusement faded, the friends broke off into their own side conversations.

(Later that night)

When dinner was over, everyone went off to do their own thing with the precious free time they had been given.