The Real Enemy [Klance]

Chapter 12

"Ugg... Why did I agree to this?" Lance asked no one in particular from his place on the floor. Keith looked down to him with a small smirk before offering him a hand.

Despite the fact that Keith had just flipped Lance over his shoulder and slammed him to the ground, Lance took his hand and allowed him to hoist him up.

"Maybe a bit gentler next time?" Lance rubbed at the small of his back.

"That was amazing!" Pidge shouted.

They had been learning from Keith for almost an hour now. The small group had learned at an extraordinary pace. Choke holds, Elbow strikes, and Takedowns had been a quick lesson, along with a few more offensive type moves, and they were now being taught how to flip someone over their shoulder. Lance being, well, Lance, had volunteered to help demonstrate. He had assumed that he would be the one flipping Keith and had been quite surprised when he had suddenly gripped his hand and forearm and launched him over his shoulder.

"Thanks Pidge." Keith said modestly.

"Yeah, yeah. My turn." Lance said and smiled wickedly. Keith looked at him, raised an eyebrow, and twitched his ears curiously. Lance's smile lost a bit of its wickedness at this as he grinned crookedly.

Cute.

"Your turn?" Keith asked and cocked his head to the side blinking his violet eyes widely.

So cute.

"Yeah, to um... you know." Lance offered, dancing around his words.

"Spit it out Lance! I want to try it too." Pidge complained. Lance looked to Pidge slightly hurt.

"My turn to flip Keith." Lance said with an overly confident and cocky voice to cover up the feelings inside him. He earned an eye roll from Pidge.

"Well, then do it already man." Hunk said. He didn't mean anything hurtful by it but Lance couldn't help the small pang of hurt his words created.

"Haha, I was getting there." He smiled dully. His shoulders were stiff and his finger twitched against his legs.

"It's alright Lance, go ahead." Keith said quietly in a soft and steady voice as he held his arm out for Lance to take. All of them turned to look at him in confusion at his curious behavior.

Lance raised an eyebrow and let his stance loosen as he approached cautiously.

A trick? He wondered. Keith continued to stand with his arm out as Lance circled around him. Maybe he knows that... No, I know how to hide my emotions well enough.

"Get on with it Lance." Pidge jabbed at him. Her words shocked him out of his investigation and he sent a glare her way.

"You're just jealous that I get to flip someone before you, shortstack." He jeered.

No, she's just annoyed by you like everyone else.

He tried to chase that particular thought away and focus instead on Pidge, who was vibrating with fury. He knew that he had a few problems with self-esteem, but he was handling it, right?

Okay, so he wasn't handling it very well, but it's not like the team had time to talk about his feelings. They had an elusive lion to find, and an entire universe to save. Not really a lot of time for 'emotional talks' in between.

He was used to it after all. His family consisted of him, two brothers very close in age to each other, a much older sister, and his mother and father. The brothers were into sports and always in need of transportation (they could do it themselves if they weren't such reckless drivers who failed their driving tests every time) which he helped provided once he got his driver's license. His older sister was always getting into some sort of trouble and even though she was four years older than Lance he was often guiding her down the right path. His father worked two jobs and never got home until after 11. His mother had her own job but was left most nights to wrangle the children to bed, make dinner, clean the house, and all the other things that a mom is responsible for.