klance

Distractions

   I don't have a single clue how it had happened. I have fallen for the one person I swore to hate.

   "Who are you looking at, baby?" Lance asked sarcastically as I stared at him while chewing oat bits from across the table. Lance always teased me like this.

   "Don't call me baby, Lance." I retorted grumpily, playing with my spoon in the sad looking oatmeal Shiro had made for everyone. It was bland, but it was better than slime, though Hunk didn't seem to mind. Eating food in space was just another thing humans needed to do, like sleep, or go to the bathroom.

   Lance winked seductively at me in his stupid sarcastic way again. I rolled my eyes and decided it would be best to leave the table since Lance and I were the only ones left sitting there anyway.

   "Suit up everyone!" Shiro shouted as the team started towards the lions. "Zarkon's ships are coming dangerously close to planet Jarre. We need to draw them away to protect lifeforms Princess Allura detected on the planet."

I jogged to gear up and rapidly put on my amor. I raced to get to my lion now.
I always knew that stationing and flying my lion was the most important part of my life. I knew I needed to give my full attention to the lion when preparing and driving, and especially focusing when we were on a very important mission. But right now, I can't shake Lance from my mind. I couldn't stop thinking about his face. The way he smiled when the two had just been making jokes out of each other. The way Lance's beautiful navy eyes looked just like Earth's oceans when the group huddled in the map room with that blinding blue light. The way his cheeks glowed red when Allura caught him right in the middle of his pranks.

I didn't realize Shiro had just been calling my name for minutes.
"Sorry Shiro. I got caught up with a uniform situation. Heading out now!" Keith quickly replied, starting up his lion and he jumped out into the bright sky. He saw all the other lions gracefully swoop around, waiting for him.

   "Ready, Keith?" Shiro asked.
   "Ready." Keith promptly replied. The five paladins swiftly made their way off the planet.
   Keith loved to look at the distant stars and planets as he drove through space in his lion, and sometimes he would come out into space just took look at the planets and stars. He thought about what it would be like to have someone he truly loved and enjoy looking at all of it with them. When Keith thought about this, he usually imagined one day coming up here with Lance, and showing him all the breathtaking stars he had already seen, and all the planets the team had never been to before.

   "Be careful everyone. Kerberos has rocks orbiting it, and are very dangerous. Jarre is right by Kerberos, so we need to pass through the rock orbit to get to the Galra ships." Pidge warned. Pidge is always the brains of the team. If we need to know something, we always depend on them over anyone else. Sometimes when I can't sleep, I go to the map room to look at the blue light of planets and stars, and I find Pidge there. Studying the map into the night, gaining knowledge on things Allura and Coran didn't know. They taught me a ton, even though I rarely listened. I usually zoned out and thought about Lance.

   Out of no where, I hit a giant rock. I wasn't paying attention again, I was thinking about Lance. The heard the rock slowly scrape the side of my lion, and suddenly my lion starts shutting down.

   "KEITH! Hurry and do what you can now, try to land your lion on Kerberos, this is the safest way out of this situation." Shiro shouted. He was upset, worked up. Shiro was protective over all of us. "Lance, follow him down, make sure he's okay when he gets down there." Shiro told Lance, who was currently battling a few small Galra ships on the other side of Kerberos.

   That was just before my lion completely shut down, and started falling to the sandy planet's surface. All power was disconnected. I tried screaming, but my voice wouldn't work. I was being bounced around my lion as I feel, the seatbelt had detached itself. And falling, it didn't feel like most people described it. It didn't feel like hours of just falling, it felt like decades. The years of my future, flashing in small moments before my eyes. I saw me and the other paladins on Earth, all smiling at a congratulatory medal service after winning the war against Zarkon. I saw the moment when I decided to tell Lance that I loved him, how he kissed me and I kissed him back, just like how I imagined it in my dreams. I saw the moment when I was teaching my daughter how to ride a bike. Her, Lance, and I riding our bikes down the road on which we lived, in a regular house, which I could tell I would've grown to love.

   I opened my eyes to reality, where I was falling. Just like that, I hit the ground. And I felt my bones get crushed as my own lion landed on me, and as my body collided with the ground. I felt several sharp pieces of metal grind themselves into my chest as well. I knew whether Lance found me or not, I was going to die, right there. So I laid, waiting.

   "Keith!" I heard Lance say, as he dragged the large scraps of metal off of me, and laid by my side. He took noticed of the injuries on my chest, and I saw him start to tear up. Lance, crying. I laughed until it hurt too much to laugh anymore. Lance sat on his feet, wiping tears from his eyes. He lifted my head and comfortably set it in his lap. I sighed and I felt myself leaving. I knew I had minutes, maybe even seconds.

   "Lance." I said with all the voice I could muster.
   "Yeah?" He asked, sniffling and stroking my hair with his shaky hand.

   "I love you." And with that. I raised my arm to grab the collar of his shirt peeking out from under his uniform. I bring his soft lips to meet mine. I kiss, and I start to feel him kissing back. He started to take charge, and then he decided to let go. I stroked his hair and pushed it aside from his face as I stared at my beautiful boy for the last time.

   "Hey Keith," Lance asked, placing a hand on my cheek. "I love you too." He said, tears streaming from his face. We locked glazes and then, I lost him.