White Paladin

Chapter 18

Lance pushed himself up and walked towards Keith,
"Should I be?" Lance scoffed as he got out his bayard,
"Lance... what happened? Where were you?" Keith said, he went from being tensed to just relaxing, completely ignoring the fact that Lance was pissed and was clearly going to deck him.
"I..." Lance was going to start before he blinked, he didn't actually remember what happened before he woke up and Lotor greeted him, for all he knew Lotor could've been lying to him and Lotor could've just convinced him to try and slaughter his friends... but what if he wasn't lying?
He let out a frustrated grunt, he didn't know who he could trust, he looked up at Keith,
"Leave now"  he said as he looked up but the snowy fog and the trees blocked his view, for all he knew the Galra could've killed the others, he looked at Keith,
"Check them, please make sure they're still alive" Lance pleaded as he stepped towards him, Keith gave him a worried look but at the same time he was mad, Lance kept disappearing, he couldn't tell him, the second he would want to tell him they would get separated, over and over and over again.
"Shiro? You there?" Keith asked,
"Yeah, what's wrong?" He asked
"Everything's okay" Keith responded,
"You sure?" Shiro asked, worry lacing his voice
"Yep... just check everyone else" Keith said before turning his comm off.
"Lance why'd you run off?" Keith asked and got a scoff from Lance,
"Run off! You guys almost... Well I think.... You almost killed me!" Lance exclaimed,
"We didn't! We... we put you in a memory pod, so we could extract your memories but then the Galra attacked and you disappeared! We didn't know if the Galra had taken you!" Keith yelled, his heart was beating a thousand miles per hour as he stood there in the freezing cold,
"Well Lotor said that you guys ejected me near a dying star!" Lance yelled back, looking at Keith with anger and frustration in his eyes.
He had never asked for this, he had just wanted to become a fighter pilot!
"I swear I'm going to kill Lotor. Don't you realize Lance! He's feeding you lies!" Keith cried out and watched the taller male, the wind gusted and made Keith stumble,
-
"Oh class was so boring!" Lance groaned as he walked out of the classroom, he stretched his arms out,
"I still cant believe I didn't make it for fighter pilots" Lance sighed, though he was upset he knew there was a tiny chance next year that he could try again, he walked through the crowd with Hunk as they walked towards the engineering class to get Pidge and then they could all go and relax at the cafeteria.
"You still have next year, or if someone drops out" Hunk joked about the last part since to get into fighter class you had to have mostly 100% and it was mostly the elite or if you had a general parent then they could bend the system a little but otherwise you needed to pray and study all the time if you wanted even the smallest chance of getting into fighter class.
He motioned for Hunk to follow as he sped up into a jog since they had to get all the way across the facility and then back to get a good spot to sit at.
Lance groaned as he wondered what today's grub would be and without realizing it he slammed into some guy, he stumbled and fell,
"Ah damnit" He mumbled as he looked up and realized it was Keith, the only kid in junior who could put two seniors on their asses with an arm tied behind his back.
"Mullet" He mumbled as he looked at him and noticed a small blush and smirked,
"What? Scared your reputation will get ruined? 'Keith, put on his ass by Lance!'" Lance smirked as he shifted towards him and took one of his papers, a rough sketch on there but Lance could recognize it easily,
"Ohhhhh Mullet has a cru- Ough!" Lance grunted as Keith punched him and gave him a bloody nose, scrambling with his papers and leaving.
"You alright man? " Hunk said as he walked over to Lance and pulled him over
"Yep" Lance said as he wiped his nose with his sleeve and scoffed
"You sure? I mean he gave you a pretty good punch" Hunk commented and looked at Lance as the taller Cuban male pulled himself up,
"Bloody nose? Worth it" Lance purred as they kept walking.
Keith grunted as he grabbed his papers and walked off, the blush slowly growing on his face as he tried to dismiss it but he couldn't stop replaying that moment in his mind, Lance had almost found out, he was in a way happy but then again what would he say? Besides... he didn't even know if Lance swung that way, he only saw Lance flirting with girls and getting them flustered but never with a guy, and besides how would Keith know if he even wanted a relationship? For all he knew Lance just wanted a one time thing.
He let out a soft sigh as he reached the senior class and tapped his foot, he checked his papers and his heart nearly stopped.
Where was the drawing,
"Damnit" He mumbled as checked again and again, he couldn't have left it? He had grabbed it and left... what if Lance had it? His heart began beating faster as he the thought of Lance exposing that to the whole garrison...
What would everyone think of him? He shook his head as he heard the doors slide open and he looked over, a bunch of seniors walking out and then Shiro walked out and Keith grabbed him and pulled him away.
"What's wrong?" Shiro asked him as he looked up from his papers and slowly began to walk with Keith.
He took a deep breath as he looked at Shiro
"Well..." He began.
-
Keith was snapped out of his memories as he was getting shaken by Lance,
"its not the time to dream Keith! GO!" He yelled as he shoved him but it was still running through his mind, he couldn't leave him... not again,
"Lets go" Keith said as he walked forward but Lance wasn't following, he didn't even have any expression on his face... Something was wrong.
"Lance lets go..." Keith mumbled before he gasped as Lance hugged him
"Promise you'll come to the ocean with me when this is all over" Lance whispered and Keith nodded, he closed his eyes but just as soon as the hug had started it had ended. Why did they have to leave, for all he knew this could be his last time with Lance, on this snowy planet, making promises to each other and sharing each others warmth...
Keith took a deep breath and forced himself to leave, trudging through the snow towards his lion, it stuck out in the white landscape and he had turned back multiple times expecting Lance to be following him and mumbling things in Spanish but each time Lance wasn't there.
As soon as Keith reached his lion he got inside and immediately Shiro's voice came up.
"Keith, what happened?" Shiro asked
"I just fell into a hole, I got out everything's fine" he mumbled and soon Shiro's voice faded as he checked everyone.
Keith had pulled up his map and moved it to the area that he and Lance had been at, now a blue and purple dot stood together, his heart sped up as he watched before he was pulled back to reality.
No he couldn't leave... not now... but he couldn't come up with an excuse.
Lance sighed as he watched the red Paladins walk away through the snow, he waited for a few minutes before Lotor showed up.
"Did you catch him? Anyone?" Lotor asked as they began to walk back to the white lion,
"No... I guess they paired off into groups and went together because only some kind of short snow person came by and then left... but no paladins" Lance responded as Lotor's ship came into view, and beside it towered the white lion.
"Lotor... uh..." Lance gulped, he didn't want to fight now, for all he knew Lotor had his generals here and he couldn't handle them all... but he had to know, he couldn't keep getting lied to, everyone did that to him his entire life and he just wanted the truth.
"Yes prince Lance?" Lotor asked, he visibly wasn't to affected by the freezing weather on this planet, Lance took a deep breath as he pulled courage from every corner of his body and took a deep breath, he straightened himself out and sighed.
"Did you lie to me?"