Don't Forget About Me (Previously, Keith Isn't Dead)

Chapter 9

It had been two days since Pidge first got the code and the Paladins still had no clue where Keith was. Team Punk could only cover so much space in a day, and Allura couldn't create wormholes every ten minutes. Pidge rarely ate dinner with everyone else, she sat in her lab trying to strengthen Keith's signal. Lance popped his head in just as Pidge tried once more to pinpoint Keith's location. "How's it going?" Lance crept in, knowing he was walking on thin ice. Everyone's tempers were short at the moment. Lance wasn't surprised when Pidge snapped at him. "You wanna know how it's going, Lance?" Pidge said, "This. This is how it's going!" She pulled up the map littered with purple dots, about twenty of them had red x's over them.  there was still so much ground to cover. Lance's face fell. He knew Pidge and Hunk were working hard to find Keith, but he didn't realize how much work they had to do. Pidge stood, arms folded in front of her, glaring at Lance. The Cuban boy sighed, "I'm sorry Pidge." 'is there anything I can do to help?' He wanted to ask her, but he knew she would say 'no, we're fine Lance. No, we have enough people already. No, you wouldn't understand it.' Lance left her lab before Pidge snapped at him again.

Lance found his feet leading him to the kitchens. He passed Hunk and Shiro in the common room, both of them were napping. Lance knew they would wake up soon and walked faster. He pulled out three mugs and made an extra large batch of hot cocoa. He put whipped cream on two of the three drinks, adding some dark chocolate mix to the third. He sprinkled some mix on top of the whipped cream and walked out of the kitchen five minutes later with his tray of steaming mugs. Placing the mug without whipped cream in front of Shiro, and a mug in front of Hunk, Lance made his way to Pidge's lab. He put the tray in front of the door, careful not to spill it, and knocked, running around the corner. He heard Pidge growl before opening the door, Lance heard a soft, "oh.", then silence. Lance peeked at the lab and saw that his gift had been accepted. He walked back to his room, hoping that he had lifted his friends' spirits, even if the happiness was fleeting.

*

After two weeks of hidden desserts, the castle's mood had been restored. Lance was happy on the first normal day. He plopped down in between Hunk and Shiro in a particularly good mood. "What's got you so happy?" Shiro said as he scooted over to give Lance more room on the couch. "I dunno. I guess I've just got a good feeling about today."Lance waited for the good moment to arrive, but it never came. The day was normal, which Lance figured was good enough given the fact that everyone had been off for nearly three weeks. Although, after some more thought, the normal-ness was a blessing and a curse. Everyone was back to their usual selves, which was great! But, Lance realized that his fellow teammates' good moods meant that they had adjusted to daily life again, which meant they were becoming accustomed to Keith's absence. Lance tried to pretend everything was okay, and that Keith was fine. But he knew he was lying to himself.

 It was on the second day of normal-ness that Pidge struck gold.

She had run screaming down the hall to the common room, "It worked! It worked!" Lance and Hunk hot on her heels. when Pidge pulled up the map of purple, almost three-quarters of it was red. There was one sole green dot labeled 'Kit'. No one questioned the name, they were too busy whooping for joy. Hunk said that they deserved a celebration, and rushed to the kitchen. Shiro stood off in the corner, a small smile dancing on his lips. Lance couldn't keep the smile off his own face for the rest of the night.

The friends took a break that night. Hunk had made cookies, Lance whipped up some hot chocolate and milkshakes, and Coran popped open a bottle of Altean whiskey that he and Allura shared. They all sat together and played a few rounds of Monsters and Mana. When they all decided to retire, Lance walked to his room with Pidge. Before she disappeared into her room Lance grabbed her arm. "Thank you for finding him." Lance's words come out as a whisper. His voice was unintentionally choked with emotion. Pidge looked up at her best friend and paused before throwing herself onto him. Her voice was muffled in his hoodie but Lance heard her words perfectly, "Thanks for picking us all up and making us happy again." With that, the two friends went to bed, but Lance stayed up, unable to sleep.

His thoughts lead him to Keith again. He was bothered at the fact that Keith kept popping up in his head at first, but Lance soon began to tolerate it and eventually enjoyed thinking about Keith. He knew it was weird but he couldn't help it. When Keith left, it was like everyone shifted back to their usual habits. Lance was forgotten again. He had no one to talk to, especially because Pidge and Hunk were always fixing something together. Lance would have loved to help, but it involved a lot of math and Lance wasn't good at that at all. Lance also had no one to spar with anymore, he and Keith used to spar every week, sometimes more often. Lance had lost a lot when Keith left. He missed Keith's laugh and his smile, and the face he made when he was confused. Lance missed their stupid arguments, and the teasing, and the way Keith would tolerate him. Lance just missed Keith. He needed him back. And with that, Lance fell asleep. The only thing on his mind was a certain mullet-head.

I'm sorry, these chapters seem so short to me but I don't know how long they seem to you. I don't want to make them too long that way you won't have to sit through a lot of this trash writing.