A Bonding Moment

3-Keith

I feel bad for poking fun at Lance about the flowers. I may act as unfeeling as those drones but I know how he feels. Lost. I don't exactly have a home to miss. Before Voltron I was living in a shack in the desert, alone. Following a gut feeling and hoping it would lead me somewhere I actually belonged. It did. With Lance and the rest of the paladins and Allura and Coran.

As we walk down the hallway to the next room I clear my throat, "I'm sorry."

Lance cocks his head, "You are?"

"For the mom, flower thing."

A stupid grin falls over his face making want to retract my apology, "Anything else you're sorry for?"

I sigh and roll my eyes, "Getting stuck on this mission with you."

"Ah, come on. I'm not that bad."

"We should be training or spying or anything other than crawling down into some old hags lair to see if there is or is not anything useful!" I stop and Lance faces me. "I don't have a mom with a flower garden waiting for me at home. I could be trying to find her right now."

He grimaces, "The sooner we take down Zarkon the sooner we can and if there is info down here that will help us do that... we can go back to finding your mom."

"We?"

"Yeah, you know," Lance starts walking again, "Me and Pidge and the rest of the crew."

"Oh," I follow him, "Right."

The next room looks just like the last only this time, no dome. Thank god. Instead there is a keypad that sits under another screen next to the door. The display looks like some kind of graph. Some kind of puzzle maybe? Lance looks around the room, his hand hovering over his bayard. After the drone room from hell, we are both a little nervous. I study the puzzle.

"I think this is Sudoku." looking at the keypad further I frown, "The numbers aren't in english... I think it's Altean. No chance you also happened to read a whole book about the language?"

Lance shakes his head, "Let me try to get the castle back, you keep looking around." He takes my helmet and goes to work in the corner.

I stare at the graph. Eighty-one squares. Nine blocks each. Definitely Sudoku but I can't read the numbers. I should have studied Altean like Pidge told me to. There are a lot of things I should do that they tell me to. I look over at Lance.

"Anything?"

He nods, "We got Pidge!"

"What about Allura or Coran?"

"They are handling a problem with the mice. Don't worry about it. Pidge can translate the numbers. Can't you, buddy?" I hear murmured protests from Lance's helmet.

"The rules of Sudoku are pretty simple-" I start but Lance cuts me off.

"How do you know how to play a puzzle game for old people?"

I sigh, "It got boring out in the desert sometimes. Shut up and listen. The rules are simple. Each of the nine blocks after to contain all the numbers one through nine in it's squares. However, each number can only appear once in each box and row."

Lance gapes at me, "That's not simple at all! And we don't even know the language this is in!"

"That's what Pidge is for, figure out what the numbers one through nine are. I'm going to try the door to see if this lock is even functioning or not."

The second I pull the handle the whole room groans and creaks. Quiznak. What did I just do? The door we just came through disappear into the wall which is now slowly approaching Lance and I. That's not good. That's really not good.

"What did you do?" He screams.

"Do the puzzle! Do the puzzle!" I crouch next to him as the ceiling lowers. He's already almost halfway done but I don't know if he can solve as quickly as the walls are closing in.

Lance puts Pidge on speaker, we frantically describe the symbols and place them properly... it won't be fast enough. Maybe the walls can be slowed down?

"Lance, try to slow those walls down, I'll finish this!"

I watch as he presses his back to the wall and his hands to the ceiling. I hold his helmet in my lap as Pidge and I quickly try to finish the puzzle. Lance groans and grunts behind us, working tirelessly to slow it down. I can't tell if it's working. I'm forced to crouch down farther as the ceiling lowers. Just a few more digits. We're almost there. Lance sits up on his knees over me, pushing against the ceiling.

"I got it!" I punch the last key and once again it all stops. I roll over on to my back to find Lance's face hovering just above mine. His face is red and sweaty and his arms are shaking on either side of my head.

"We are a good team." He says with a smile, looking down at me.

Slowly but surely the walls and ceiling lift back up, revealing an open door to another hallway. I can only hope we will reach the end of this soon. Once there's enough room, Lance crashes down on the floor next to me. We lie there for just a moment, catching our breath in silence.

"Are you okay?" I ask finally.

"I think I just liquified my muscles but I'm alright," he sits up and a frown falls over his face. "I can't say the same for your helmet though."

I look up and see my helmet crushed into pieces in the corner of the room. I really hope Coran can make a replacement or he will be pissed.

"Can I ask you something?" Lance says suddenly, turning to me.

"I guess."

"Why were we enemies? I mean. I know we were competitive and all but sometimes it did and still does feel like you might even... I don't know... hate me?"

My eyes widen. I've never actually disliked Lance. At the Garrison I played along with our little rivalry, it was kind of fun. I find him annoying but he has redeeming qualities.

"I don't hate you, Lance, I never have." We walk side by side down the long, metal hall. "If anything, I thought you hated me."

"What? That's crazy. I don't hate you, you're my friend. We're teammates!"

"That doesn't mean you have to like me." I say glumly.

Lance stops and turns to me, "Maybe we should just take it easy on eachother. Maybe even start over?"

I smile slightly, "Yeah, that would be good."

He extends a hand, "Hi, I'm Lance."

"Nope. Not doing that." I turn on my heel and start moving back down the hall.

After walking for what feels like miles we come to an intersection. Left or right. Quiznak. This is getting more complicated by the minute.

"I'll go left?" Lance asks with a shrug.

I nod at him and we part ways.