burning blue (KLANCE)

3. fold or remain

"So the garrison ordered you to stay on earth, and asked you to help develop a defense mechanism against the Galra with the knowledge of your training here?" Pidge asks. The morning rays had crawled golden into her brown hair. Since the time I was gone, puberty had slowly set in her bones, causing a tighter jawline to pull on the mushy face, I remember her so clearly with. When she eyes me over, there's an absence of the giddy shimmer that used to dance and sparkle in her gaze. Even her voice slightly lost its childish pitch. 

"Yeah," I sigh, "I was the only one who could give them that information and since I had nearly died in space, I wasn't as eager to return as I used to be."

Pidge's eyes travel down and stay grounded on the tears in the couch. She plucks some plush out of the torn cloth, her shoulders hunched under the weight of the silence that wraps around every person in the room. I don't remember those rips being there in the green material, I think to myself vaguely.

Right when I want to open up my mouth to say something, she cuts me off, her eyes still not meeting mine. 

"Still... you could have messaged us you know," she mutters. She rolls her slender finger in a string of white plush. I glance up at Allura, waiting for her to scold Pidge for destroying the couch, but she can only look at me with a gravity in her watery eyes that could suck all the life out of me. I quickly advert my gaze.

"Pidge, he already told us," Hunk starts softly, "he was forbidden to communicate with us as to not draw the attention of the Galra on our planet."

Hunk leans a bit past me in an attempt to make eye contact with Pidge but she keeps her head down and stubbornly continues with pulling out little clouds of stuffing. 

"Still a dick move Mc Clean."

I lay my hand on her lap and she stares at it warily. 

"Don't tell me you missed me that much," I try to joke. She flicks the fluff of her fingertips and gives me a glare that nearly makes me scoot over into Hunk's lap. 

"It's not funny."

I glance at Hunk for help but am met with the sight of a clenched jaw and silent agreement. I sigh. A heavy feeling fills my chest as I pull my hand back.

"I'm sorry Pidge, I really am. Not a day went by where I wasn't thinking about all of you." She stays silent, "Truly, it tore me apart to no end."

A wobbly smile graces her face as she caves in at the sincerity of my words. Hunk lays a heavy warm arm around my shoulder and pulls me against him. 

"We missed you too buddy, that's all," he says. 

I close my eyes and let myself sag against his shoulder with a deep sigh. A punch in my stomach makes me jolt upwards with a heaving cough.

"Aw! What was that for?!" 

"That was for leaving us." The corners of Pidge's mouth curl up, but she still can't hide the new glossy wetness that has started to gather in her young eyes, "and this," she flings her arms around my neck in a choke hold. I huff out a breath as she squeezes me against her before releasing me just as quick, "is for coming back."

Her eyes dart away again. 

"We are glad to have you back Lance," Allura says, "it's just so unreal."

She fumbles with some strands of white hair while looking at me. A slight blush covers my cheeks. I clear my throat. I almost forgot how beautiful she is.

"Where's the rest of the team, where's Shiro, where's... where's Keith?" 

Everyone visibly winces at the mentioning of Keith's name. A shiver, cold as ice water slides down my back and makes me shuffle onto the edge of the couch.

"W-what did something happen to him?" 

Allura and Hunk share a brief moment of eye contact before Hunk lays a hand on my shoulder and turns me towards him. A gnawing feeling of dread nibbles on my insides. 

"Shiro is fine, he's with the rebels for a mission of a few months, and Keith well... Keith is euhm Keith."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

Hunk grimaces. 

"Oh for God's sake just tell him already Hunk," Pidge spits out as she attempts to throw a handful of fluff into his face.  

"Tell me what?" I nearly break my neck from snapping my head from left to right.

Hunk licks his lips. "Euhm well... euhm you see, well...euhm."

"He went to the blades," Pidge says bitterly, saving Hunk from another mouth full of mumbling. 

"What?" I whisper out breathlessly. 

Pidge apparently isn't done talking, "He's not always around. But this week he is."

"Then why isn't he here, sitting with us?" I glance from face to face but all I get are sealed expressions.

"Yeah buddy about that," Hunk clears his throat, "he kinda went into rage mode after you presumably died and nobody here wants to lose a limb, so we decided not to wake him."

"Besides," Allure chimes in, "he rarely sleeps anymore so every minute he spends being unconscious is a blessing."

"Yeah cause when he wakes, it's slash and stab time again," Pidge adds with a raise of her brows. 

My heart sinks deeper in my stomach. 

Right when I open my mouth to speak, an all too familiar raspy voice fills my ears. Every hair on my body rises upwards at the sound. 

"Guys it's five in the morning why are you making so much no-"

The tablet he held in his hand clatters onto the floor. It bounces off his shoe and cracks its screen against the plinth in the doorway. I forget how to breathe as two wide eyed purple irises suck in the sight of me. I can hear my heart pounding between my ears, the only sound that fills the room besides Keith's raggedy breaths. His black hair flutters before his eyes with every exhale. 

"Hey Samurai," I say softly.