You're My Home

Chapter Two

The next day was rather quiet and lazy, with the Paladins sitting around and doing nothing the entire morning. Only Keith was training once again until he passed out.

Lance hated it whenever the ebony haired boy would push himself until he just couldn't do it anymore. It meant that Keith was suffering more than he let on and no one else noticed it until it was too late.

Lance wished that the boy wouldn't bottle everything in, otherwise it will lead to more pain in the very near future.

Pain for who, Lance wasn't so sure, but it wouldn't be good.

The Cuban boy sighed, tugging his jacket around himself. What the hell was he even doing here? He broke out of his thoughts when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned in the direction of that tap to find Allura looking down at him with worry in her unique eyes.

"Lance, is everything all right? You've been rather quiet for sometime now," she declared, her accent more obvious than it had been before. He realized that the Altean princess had completely set her delicate hand on his shoulder in a firm grasp. A sign of trust. For her.

Lance had never known that Allura could touch him so willingly before. She always seemed to keep her distance from him, although, under the current circumstances, it seemed that Allura had gotten quite close with the former Blue Paladin. Here he thought that he irritated her just like everyone else. But he has been getting better at not acting like a total idiot.

He sighed through his nose, closed his eyes, and took the delicate hand off his shoulder. "I'm fine, Princess, Just a lot on my mind lately." The tall boy went to stand up, towering over the girl. The princess gave him a knowing look.

"This is about the Blue Lion, is it not?" she queried.

Lance shook his head slightly. "Not quite. I mean, yes, but that's not the entire reason," he assured her.

"But you miss it." It wasn't a question.

Lance nodded. "Yes, I miss Blue more than anything, but I'm more worried about Keith," he declared. A look of realization came across the beautiful face of Allura. "I mean, I know that Keith never wanted to be the Black Paladin because, clearly, Black is Shiro's lion and Shiro is a natural born leader. But Keith is doing his best and I believe in him wholeheartedly, but I'm seeing just how much these new assignments are affecting him."

Allura gave a small smile of encouragement to the boy. Lance sighed for what felt like the millionth time. "I guess, what I'm trying to say is that I think this whole new leader thing is really overwhelming him."

Lance stopped talking as soon as he saw the sad look cross the princess's face. She looked back up into the boy's ocean blue eyes. "Lance, we all miss Shiro and no one likes the situation, but everything will go back to normal. I believe that we will find Shiro and then we can get back to our original assignments," Allura expressed.

The blue eyed boy did not want to chime in on the fact that he wouldn't be going back to his original assignment because the Altean princess was so much better at piloting Blue than he could ever hope. Everything would go back to normal, but Lance wouldn't be a part of that normal.

At least, that's what he thought.

Lost in thought once again, the Cuban didn't know that Allura had been talking.

"Well, I better go back to updating the castle's defenses. We'll need it once the Galra Empire decide to attack again." She turned to leave.

And with that, Lance was alone again, alone with his thoughts and a song went through his head that seemed perfect for now.