Say You Love Me!

It's Your Fault!

A/N: I have to choose a pronoun for the lovely Pidge, so I'm trying to go neutral here and say "she"

"Asta-la-later, Keith" Lance, the blue paladin spat, stalking away angrily in the wrong direction. 

Keith shook his head as he took off his helmet and watched Lance stalk back the other direction to exit the training room. 

"Your helmet looks stupid." He added.

It's the same as his but red- Keith thought. Whatever. This team building exercise was a bust. Keith looked up to the observation balcony to see Coran and Allura looking distressed, talking with an angry Shiro. The Galran empire had been dormant in their attempt of taking over the galaxy and the Voltron team had been training and getting stronger- all except Keith and Lance

All the red and blue paladin ever did was fight. No matter was too big or too small to argue over. It was hard to believe that the two were even on the same team and an even bigger surprise that they managed to form Voltron and work together. 

The two migrated to the dining room eventually and stared at each other while eating the serving of food goo that appeared to be dinner. The boys glared, and Lance occasionally missed scooping into his bowl as he made intense eye contact with Keith.

God, why is he staring at me? Keith wondered, becoming increasingly annoyed and self aware. I want to resume dinner like a 'normal' human here, but I don't want him to think he won this stupid competition.

Lance missed his mouth again, repeatedly shoveling his face with food. I am so winning this competition. He thought, feeling very proud of himself.

Shiro and Allura stormed into the room. Pidge looked up from her tablet and Hunk woke up from his post meal doze. Shiro glared at Pidge momentarily before she stood up, looking at the two idiots staring and trying to eat. "Well if you'll excuse me, this has been sufficiently awkward and I don't want to be here anymore." She left with Hunk shrugging and leaving stiffly.

Lance broke the eye contact to watch his teammates leaving before turning back "awkwar-"

"Quiet" Shiro commanded. "The two of you- honestly- what are we going to do with you? The Galrans are plotting against us every moment we sit and neither of you can work together. It's ridiculous! Stop thinking about yourselves! Pidge needs her family back, I need my crew, and plenty of civilizations need their planets." He paused. "Now I don't know what you want to do about any of that. Do either of you two want to make a change at all?" He took the chance to look at the two paladins, who had stopped eating and looked at the floor. Lance rested his head on his hand.

"Well what do you think we should do?" Keith asked, looking up to Shiro and Allura. It was Allura who spoke.

"There is nothing we can do to help you two. That can only be solved yourselves. You need to learn to work together."

"Yeah, count me out. I have been training and getting some pretty great results, but Keith is holding me back. I'll work out with Hunk tomorrow."

"That's not the point" Allura stated, raising her voice. "You two need to develop your relationship. Something is off between the two of you. You have 3 days to fix it. That's all we can afford before we go into battle." 

Lance looked at Keith and then back to Shiro. "Are you serious?!"

Shiro didn't answer, but the room felt heavy. The boys felt guilty together and Keith felt his cheeks grow hot. Lance was staring at him again. Not this shit again! He thought, locking into Lance's gaze. The meal ended much as it started, ending with both boys rising up from the table and walking to their rooms, locked in eye contact until they closed their doors from across the hall.

Are we really holding everyone back? Keith wondered, as he brushed his teeth and got ready for bed. He sat with his thoughts and prepared for the incoming days.

I am so good at staring competitions. Lance thought to himself, throwing a crumpled ball of paper into his trashcan in his room. "swish" he said, watching the ball glide through the air and miss the trashcan. He shrugged. Totally made it.