The pillow beneath his head was soaked with tears before he dragged himself up to tug his jacket off. He threw it to the ground in front of him and sat in silence, just staring at it in thought. It didn't make the hurt any less painful though. Why didn't they just pick him up something in the first place? He would have been happy with anything. He sighed and dropped his face into his cupped hands.
He wasn't trying to sound greedy, but it was a punch to the gut to know that his "friends" had forgotten about him.
His head shot up.
What if they hadn't forgotten about him?
What if they just didn't care enough?
He shook his head. No. It was obvious that they felt guilty, Keith especially. He fell back on his bed and stared up at the ceiling as tears started filling his eyes.
Everything was going to be okay.
______________________________________________________
Even though they had previously been sitting in silence in the lounge where Lance had left them. They were now ripping down the halls to the hanger. By then they were all crying silently. Although they weren't talking to each other, they already knew that they were about to do. They climbed into Black's mouth and shot out of the airlock.
"We're so stupid," Keith growled glaring down at the floor. They didn't answer but at that point, they really didn't have to.
"We're not stupid, we did something stupid," Hunk said from where he was standing behind Shiro's chair. They looked over at him.
"Lance doesn't like it when we're mean to ourselves," he explained not meeting any of their eyes. Somehow that made them feel even worse.
"What about when we're mean to him?" Pidge asked.
"We kind of already saw how that worked out," Shiro said keeping his eyes trained forward. It was silent for the rest of the trip.
They were lucky that they decided not to travel too far from the mall until the next day. Thankfully it didn't seem like it had a closing time either, so they had plenty of time to find Lance the perfect gifts.
"I'm going to say this straight out; I don't think Lance would care about any of the alien things here," Keith announced as they squinted at the mall directory trying to figure out any of the alien languages.
"Earth shop then?" Pidge asked. They looked at each other and nodded before heading down the strip. Shopkeepers called out to them, remembering them from earlier. With a kind wave and a smile, they continued on, their minds focused solely on their mission. The alien's face popped up as they walked through the door and immediately sidled up to them with a smile.
"Welcome," he greeted. "Oh, I remember you, you were with the taller, darker haired one the first time he came around," he said looking down at Pidge. She nodded her head, impressed at his memory. It had been several months since they had last been here. Looking around the shop though, it didn't look like he got very many customers. The rest of the paladins spread out, covering the store. Traitors. She looked back at the shopkeeper who hadn't stopped smiling at her. Strangely, she didn't find it creepy in any way, more friendly than anything else.
"How did you like his gift? He told me that he was shopping for his sister," Pidge froze even as the shopkeeper looked down at her curiously with a finger to his chin.
"Although you don't look very much like him, I thought that humans bared traits of their families," he mused out loud.
"Oh, we, we're not blood-related," Pidge managed to spit out.
