Just Your Average College Life

Chapter 14

Saturday, 9th November, 12am:

Lance sat, crying heavily, in the drama changing rooms, tears rolling down his reddened cheeks and sobs wracking against his body. Lotor had been right, Shiro and Keith didn't need him, he was just the third wheel in the relationship. But Keith had been sorry, Lance had, according to Keith's text, made Keith feel like he’d done something wrong, which was unforgivable on Lance's part. Keith was amazing, Shiro was amazing, the person who'd severed the three’s connections and ignored everybody for a week was Lance - so why were they the ones who felt sorry? Maybe they felt guilty about being happier without him, or at least cared enough to feel bad that Lance would never find love again?

Lance sat in silence for a few more minutes, his tears slowing minutely, before he heard clanging from outside the room, a telltale sign someone was walking down the hall above him. He figured it must be the janitor since, strictly speaking, students weren't supposed to be in this building after hours without explicit permission. Then again, Lance didn't hear the rattle of the janitor’s cart and there seemed to be too many footsteps for just one person. Before he could rush off, sure campus security would be down there any second to scold him and send him back to his dorm, whilst muttering about annoying, enthusiastic drama students working all night, the lock on the door started to jangle (before audibly breaking) and his friends burst in.

First Hunk rushed over and trapped Lance in a hug with his incredibly strong arms, arms he'd probably used to break the lock, Lance reciprocated, nuzzling into his shoulder until Pidge joined them and started hugging him too after a muffled warning about never leaving again. Then Allura stormed over, lightly slapping Lance's arm, and squashed him even more than Hunk had. It wasn't until several minutes later Lance even noticed the two figures waiting awkwardly in the corner of the room.

“What are you doing here?” Lance sniffled, pulling away from the hug, with much difficulty, and addressing everyone in the room.

“You left in the middle of the night without a word and then ignored all of our many texts.” stated Pidge, rolling their eyes but wiping them too, Lance felt absolutely rotten he'd made his friends cry. Who does that?

“And you were acting strangely all week.” Added Allura, stroking his hair softly in comfort.

“And maybe we were worried, okay?!” Muttered Keith loudly from where he was leant against the wall, staring at the floor like he might be crying too. Seriously could Lance get any shittier as a person?

“... I'm sorry… I shouldn't have worried you like that… It’s my fault….” Lance apologised sadly, turning away from everyone. Shiro was the one to come over.

“No, we, Keith and I, we're sorry. I don't know what happened that made you feel like we didn't want you around but since you felt like it then that means we're not doing our jobs right, we just want you to be happy - but you've been upset for the last week and we've barely done anything except for texting and trying to catch you at the café. We should have tried harder to be better soulmates- I should…” Shiro’s voice started cracking so, instead of sitting, looking at his lap, Lance budged over to where Shiro had sat next to him and wrapped his long arms around his torso, muttering soft apologies about making him so sad.

“You still don't get it, do you? We are worried about you, we want to know what happened because we care.” Keith explained, crossing his arms and trying to frown but there was a soft, pleading look in his violet eyes.

Lance pondered that for a moment, he thought he'd be making his soulmates happy by leaving them alone but instead they seemed more upset than he could've ever imagined them being. And his friends, his incredible friends, they cared too- they had all come over here to cry and cuddle with him even though he'd been basically ignoring all of them for a week. Maybe Lotor had been wrong. Maybe they all needed him too, he wasn't a freak or useless or a 7th wheel but actually an important person who deserved love, even if he'd upset his friends.

“I… At the Halloween party I saw Lotor… He said- he said I… I was a freak and Shiro and Keith didn't… They didn't want me…” He ended up sobbing the last part into Shiro’s shoulder, whilst Keith rushed over to comfort him too. Then his friends all joint the pile, whispering furiously about how Lotor was an ass and they loved Lance so much that if he ever forgot it they'd write a message telling him on his forehead with Lotor’s blood. Part of Lance hoped they weren't kidding.

“Lance, you're our soulmate but, more importantly, you're our boyfriend. We chose to be with you, you offered to leave us be but we dated you anyway - because we wanted to. We didn't get stuck with you, we chose to be with you, okay? And, if it's okay with you, we're going to stay with you.” Promised Shiro, moving Lance's chin so they were eye to eye.

“Of course it's okay with me, I- I love you.” said Lance tearfully, being soulmates amplified feelings, sure, but he wasn't expecting Shiro and Keith to reciprocate yet.

“We love you too.” replied Keith, wrapping his arms around Lance's neck and pulling him in for a long, passionate kiss.