Time Moves On (Langst)

Lies and the Truth

This can't be happening, no one was supposed to know about his dirty little secret. Lance could feel everything around him being washed away like the tide. Before he could lose all control he saw Pidge run out of the room in the direction of his. Now nothing mattered but making sure they didn't find it. Lance bolted after them but it was too late because they had already tricked the Altean system to lock his bedroom door before he could stop them. He just stood outside his door, waiting for the screams they would certainly let loose if they found it.

Shiro came up running behind him with the rest of the team following behind. Shiro placed his cold metal hand on lances shoulder. Lance rushed in before he got the chance to speak "why did you follow me? Why can't you just allow me to walk to my own grave which you so desperately want to put me in?"

"Lance what do you mean? You are a valued member of this team. Why didn't you tell us something was wrong? We care about you."

Lance was bombarded by emotions and he couldn't handle it he had to find someone who truly cared for him. He had to find red. Taking off down the hallway Lance muttered to himself hoping his teammates wouldn't hear "you sure never acted that way."

None of the team tried to follow him all frozen with shame and guilt. How could they not see their fellow palidin crumbling under the weight of a world he was placed in. They were so disappointed with themselves.
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Reds hangar door opened as the lion growled. "Shh girl, quiet, please. I don't want them coming after me." The metal beast soon lowered to let her palidin in before raising her barrier. Once in the large red lion Lance could already feel her protective vibe humming through his bones and shaking the castle walls. A dare to all other occupants of the castle to just try and hurt her palidin anymore. It made him laugh a little the princess claimed she was the hardest to bond with yet once he stepped inside the cockpit for the first time she had already vowed to protect him.

"Baby why am I like this? They didn't do anything wrong" she let out a low growl at that "so why am I mad at them?" She continued to comfort the crying Lance as he broke inside the large red lion.
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Pidge ran out of Lance's room with unwept tears in their eyes running to Hunk. As hunk embraced then he noticed why they were so distraught a small silver blade no bigger than an inch laid on Lance's bed. He just swallowed the vomit that threatened to rise and left "guys meet us in the lounge when your ready." He sounded like he was going to break. "Quiznack get that thing out of their"

Allura and Coran were wondering why anyone would do that to themselves and discussed it amongst each other while also heading to the commons room. Shiro was silently crying as he stumbled around the room looking for anything else. And Keith, well Keith stormed into the room and took the blade to one of the air locks to shoot it into space. Maybe a bit over dramatic but fair in his mind, after all one of his teammates was hurting himself.

They all met except for Lance at the lounge. If it weren't for the serious topic at hand the team likely would have fallen asleep on the couches. Their body's slowly sank deeper as the conversation continued. "Guys, I think we might need to explain to our Altean friends what they saw was." Pidge ever the genius they are, thought about the fact that the Alteans didn't know much about earth like peanuts or rain or depression.

"Someone care to explain to them?" The room stayed silent so Shiro began to speak again "alright well Lance we just discovered is a self harmer. They often hurt themselves in different fashions to inflict pain upon themselves."

Coran had understood enough at this point to know Lance was in pain "but why Shiro would my boy cause himself pain?"

"Well, we can't know for sure. Only Lance knows. But it might be because of his past. It wasn't as nice as others."

"Well I can see that, but what do we do now?"

"We have to be there for him and make sure he knows how much we love him." The conversation continued on for at least an hour when the group decided it was a good time to talk to Lance. They knew he wasn't in his room so the only reasonable place to assume would be in reds hangar.

Once they arrived they immediately knew it would be difficult to talk to Lance. The barrier was up and red was refusing to look at them. "Keith you used to be her pilot maybe she'll respond to you." The princess suggested.

"Ok, here goes nothing." He then walked as close to red as the particle barrier would allow. "Hey red, were kinda in a situation here where uh- er can we just agree this isn't going to work- we need to see Lance." Silence. Keith tried to knock on the barrier like Lance did so long ago but only got a low growl in response. "Okay this isn't going to work it's like she" his voiced dropped as realization drew over his features "thinks- like I had hurt Lance. But I couldn't of. He was happy, we joked. That's all they were Shiro. That's what I thought." The young male was now crying, silently tears fell to the cold cement floor.

Shiro had had enough this couldn't go on any longer. "Red, listen to me. He could be in danger as leader it is my job to ensure my team is safe so letting me check on him is part of that. Please red I'm asking but also commanding you to let us" another growl could be heard reverberating through the castle "ok to let me come in. Let me make sure he's ok." Red responded by dropping he particle barrier and giving blank looks at the others.

Shiro ran inside in search of Lance. The rest of the team was outside with heavy looks draped across their faces. How could they of done this to their friend. Their family. Lance had always been more than just the comic relief that none knew they needed. He had to have known that. Right?