Let's Hit The Books!

Trust Issues

The first day went by without a bang, Keith managed to avoid picking a fight with anyone, save from Lance, which was a big improvement compared to last year when he walked away with a black eye from a scuffle about his hair style, but at least Keith could walk away, couldn't say that about the other guy, in the end Keith had to talk his way out of expulsion by talking to the head master and by some miracle he wasn't kicked out of Altea, but he did miss a month of Robotics Club meetings in return. By the time Keith came back, he wished he was expelled.

This was exactly how Lance felt as he stared down at his write up slip. It was only the first day and he already managed to get sent to the dean's office, he was forced to stay after school and discuss the incident and figure out a constructive punishment, which in turn meant he'd be missing the first team Voltron meeting of the year. Long story short, he was dead.

Sulking, he dragged his feet in the direction of the door to Pidge's last class. Leaning against the wall for the last minute or so. Dragging in a deep breath just as the bell rang, signaling the first day of torture was over, he watched as the door swung open and out walked twenty or so students. Pidge, of course, preferred to stay toward the back of the crowd to avoid be trampled, but it was very rare that she was ever late to a Voltron meeting, to her it was the worst offense you could commit. Keith could probably kill Lance, but as long as he showed up for the club she wouldn't bat an eye. In fact, she'd probably find away to resurrect Lance just to kill him again for missing the meeting.

Surely enough, she was the second to last student out of the classroom and focused on rapidly typing on her phone. Lance's hand shot out to grab Pidge's arm and pull her over to him, during so she gasped and nearly dropped her phone, placing a hand on his chest to stabilize herself, she narrowed her gaze.

"What have I told you about scaring me like that? I could've dropped my phone!" Lance rolled his eyes and scoffed.

"You and I both know that you'd either fix it or build a new, better one anyway."

"Not the point Lance. Anyway, we don't have time for this, we gotta go or else we're gonna be late." Lance sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, looking anywhere, but at Pidge.

"About that. I actually can't go to the meeting." Those words made Pidge stop dead in her tracks and slowly turn towards him once more, her glare all the more intense.

"What did you do, Lance?" She crossed her shoulders and jutted out her hip, her naturally beautiful face adorned with a frown.

"Funny story, so- um, I was caught putting gum in Keith's mullet." He'd thought through this lie so much that he was sure it'd sound like the truth, but oddly enough it sounded struggled and weak, not very believable at all. Her frown deepened and she sighed, turning away from him, she adjusted the position of her shoulder bag.

"Then you'd best not be late." Lance deflated.

"Pidge, I-"

"No, Lance. It's fine really, now go before you get into even more trouble." With that she quickly walked down the hall, never once looking back at Lance.

Turning to walk in the direction of the Dean's office, he couldn't help, but think about how he'd seemingly got away with lying right to Pidge's face, it didn't feel right though. There was no way she should've believed him, but she did, even though it sounded so false that it nearly made him cringe. Perhaps she believed him because she trusted him to handle this, she's trusting him to tell her the truth eventually, on his own terms. He stopped in his tracks and ran a hand through his hair. He didn't deserve her, he thought.  Even though it was a small lie, it was a lie nonetheless and that meant something to Lance, trust was important in a relationship, if Pidge couldn't trust him, he wouldn't know what he'd do.

No, he decided. I won't tell her, it's not important. He knew he shouldn't worry her or make her suspicious, but she'd be even more pissed at him if she knew what really happened. Dejected, Lance dragged his feet to pay receive a lesser punishment than he'd already been given.

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Pidge walked into the conference room turning to close the door, when she faced the room everyone was seated in chairs looking at her with concerned and worried eyes, looking up at the clock she saw that she was three minutes late. Sighing she took her place in between Shiro and Hunk.

"Is everything okay, Pidge?" Shiro asked, laying a hand on her shoulder. She tapped her finger nails on the table's wooden surface.

"Yeah, It's nothing. Lance isn't gonna the be coming today, by the way." Everyone blinked and exchanged scared looks with each other, but Hunk was the only one who dared to speak.

"And you're okay with that?" She took a breath.

"What does it matter? Shiro's the club president anyway, I'm just the manager."

"Does this mean we can start the actual meeting?" Keith asked with his arms crossed and feet propped up on the table, light reflecting off of the black leather of his boots. Pidge gave him an unamused look, picking up a stack of papers in front of her with a sigh.

"Fine. First order of- wait. Keith your hair doesn't look like it had gum stuck in it earlier." Keith stared at her for a good thirty seconds with a raised eye brow, silent.

"That's because there was never gum stuck in it?"

"But Lance said-" She stopped in her tracks. Of course when he'd originally told her that he'd stuck gum in Keith's hair she had her suspicions, he didn't exactly sound like he was telling the truth. Okay, it totally sounded like bullshit, his voice had wavered,  his eyes wouldn't meet her own, and his face glistened with sweat, but she chose to give him the benefit of the doubt and take it for him being nervous about missing the meeting, she didn't want to believe he was lying to her, but now it was a reality she had to face.

What had he done that was so bad that he felt he had to lie to me about it?, she asked herself. And why do I care so much? He doesn't have to tell me. She rested her chin on her open palm and brushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear. Then again, he didn't have to lie to me either. She looked up as someone cleared their throat. Once more everyone had their eyes on her.

"Okay, Pidge you're really starting to worry me." Shiro confessed. His eyebrows were knitted and his mouth was twisted in a gentle frown, his grey eyes searched for answers in her golden ones.

"What?"

"Yeah, you stopped mid sentence and just started staring into space, it was none of us were even here to you, Keith even wadded up a piece of paper and threw at you head and you didn't even respond!" Pidge looked at ground and sure enough, a crumpled piece of printer paper graced the floor next to her feet.

"Oh sorry, I just have a lot on my mind. Can we just move on now?"

"You're sure you're okay?" Shiro asked for a final time. Pidge nodded.

"Yeah, I'm sure." He smiled at her and turned to address the rest of the room as well.

"Then by all means, let's begin."