Drowning (Klangst/Klance)

Chapter 19

Lance awoke in a cold sweat, twisted up in his blankets. Panting, he unwrapped himself and got up, overheated.

"Fuck.." He hadn't had that dream in forever, and hated it. He went into his bathroom and splashed water on his face, wincing as it made contact with his burn.

He examined his face, seeing something he thought he'd never have.... Acne. He always took good care of himself, especially his skin, but his time in the storage room had obviously taken a toll on him.

Groaning, Lance took some of his facial lotion and applied it to his face, avoiding his burn. He didn't know how it would affect it.

Finished, he blinked several times, examining his right eye. It was cloudy, and he still had no vision from it. In other words, it was ruined. One of the eyes that his mother had loved so much was ruined, not even the same color anymore.

He forced himself to suck it up, stuffing his sadness and bitterness deep inside himself. He needed to go look for the others.

He pulled his jacket on and exited his room, squinting. He wasn't used to bright light like this after being locked in the dim, stuffy storage room for so long. It felt nice.

He checked the dining room and training room, but found no one. He found them after being lured to the bridge by yelling, the sound of arguing all too familiar to him.

Lance entered the room, seeing Keith and Shiro going at each other's throats. Allura was behind Shiro, while Hunk and Coran were behind Keith. "What're you guys doing?"

Everyone's turned to face him.

"Lance!" Hunk forced down his last few remaining shreds of fear and ran over to him, crushing him in a bear hug.

"Uh- Can't breath!" Lance exaggerated it, pulling his hands to his throat. He had a small smile dancing on his lips.

Hunk set him down, a wide smile on his face. "Thank God you're alright. You've been asleep over a day!"

"What? Really?" He frowned. "No one tried to wake me up?"

"We decided it would be best to let you rest." Coran clapped a hand down on his shoulder, his eyes twinkling.

"Makes sense. I do need to make up for my lost beauty sleep, after all." Lance did an imaginary hair flip, grinning. The expressions on Shiro and Allura's faces were like daggers straight to his heart. Speaking of which, he had really bad heartburn. "And if you guys would all so kindly answer my question.... What's going on?"

"Not much. We were just discussing something that doesn't concern you." Allura's voice was cold and dismissive.

"Bullshit. This has everything to do with him." Keith growled, clearly still pissed.

"It doesn't, Keith." Allura's voice dared him to say otherwise.

Keith was about to snap at her, but Lance intervened. "Okay, then I won't push it. But I need to talk to Shiro."

"Not alone, you aren't. If you have something to say to him, say it here in front of all of us."

"Fine by me." Lance turned to face Shiro, looking him in the eyes. "Just thought I'd thank you for what you did. Hope you're happy with your good deed you did for everyone."

Shiro averted his gaze, feeling Allura and Coran's gazes on him. Figures that Keith told Hunk. "I... Don't know what you're talking about, Lance. Sure you aren't out of it from being in the pod for so long?"

"Oh, I'm sure shit face. I quite clearly remember being locked in that storage room by a certain skunk-haired someone. And the feeling of my skin melting under the ferocious heat of someone's fucking metal hand. Although, it was kinda my fault for provoking you, I suppose."

"Shiro, what's he talking about?"

"I don't know, princess." Shiro's hands were clenching and unclenching.

"Don't play dumb, Skunk." Lance had taken up a new name for Shiro, the bitterness flooding out from the gates he'd built around his heart. "You said I attacked you and locked me in that godforsaken storage room. No one questioned it since I'm a crazy murderer, after all." A bitter smile found its way to his lips. "But I didn't do shit. You kept me in there, left me there, even though I was clearly dying."

"Dying..? Lance, what do you mean?" Keith jumped in, concerned at the look in Lance's eyes.

"Before I got us off the ship, that fucking druid stuck something in me, a parasite thing. I can feel it even now, by my heart, leeching off my blood and doing God knows what."

"Shiro... You fuck face." Keith was at his throat again, grabbing his shirt by the collar and pulling him down to look him in the eyes. "I knew you locked him there, but you fucking did all that too?!"

"I did. And I don't regret it. I did what I thought was best for the team. We can't have a murderer running around freely."

"FOR THE LAST FUCKING TIME, THAT WASN'T LANCE! IT WAS FUCKING BLUE!" Keith completely lost his shit, his patience worn thin. His fist made contact with Shiro's face.

"Keith, stop!" Lance grabbed Keith's arm as he went for another punch, his face cold.

"Lance, do you hear him?! How can you ask me to stop?! He deserves it!"

"I agree. And I'm used to hearing shit like that out of him. But yelling and hitting... I just can't. It's bad enough when we're fighting the Galra, but seeing it amongst my own teammates? No. Not after that fucking dream I had." His expression grew sad.

Hearing how serious he was, Keith forced himself to calm down, jerking his arm out of Lance's grasp. "Fine.."

Lance turned back to Shiro, able to see his split lip and already forming bruise. He knew from experience that Keith's punches hurt like shit. "Skunk, I'll just let you know. I hold no grudge. Not a big one, at least. But you've obviously done damage that can't be repaired." He gestured to his burn. "And it's not just the burn. I can't see out of my right eye anymore, thanks to you. The one part of me I truly wanted to preserve. My mom loved my eyes, and I loved her. So my eyes were obviously special to me..."

Shiro gulped, looking away. He could feel the guilt building back up. Once again, self doubt crept back up on him about the decisions he'd made. "I see..."

"I'm gonna go eat and rest then. I'm too tired for this shit." Lance threw his hands in the air and walked away, stomach grumbling.

The others were left to soak in all the information Lance just spewed out at them.

-----

Words: 1,132

I felt motivated to write and wanted to procrastinate my homework, so here. ~(^^)~