A Little Bit Of Magic

Part 8

Corran was stuck with Lance for the day while the others went on a diplomatic mission, boring in his opinion. In that sense he was glad to be looking after lance, it was certainly better then what the rest were all doing.

"Would you like to help me clean the castle?" He asked the little toddler on the floor. He knew Lance couldn't but still wanted him to feel included and it wasn't like Corran had the time to do an activity with him or take him somewhere. He had a castle to clean after all!

"Nuuu, I want dad!" Corran, slightly offended tried not to take that personally. He preferred Lance when he was his usual self anyway, it was enjoyable to talk to him about the things the others would not. "I'm afraid number one is not going to be here until much later, that's okay though. You get to spend the whole day with me! The amazing Corran." Needless to say, Lance didn't respond, confused.

Corran picked up his cleaning essentials and made sure Lance was following before going to the first room in need of cleaning and repairs, the training deck.

There were indents all over the place and Corran sighed loudly, getting ready for the strenuous work he had cut put for him. Lance proved to be little to no help at all as suspected, only being loud and throwing anything he could get his hands on.

They went in and out of different rooms, mentally cheaking off each room until Corran made it to the kitchen. His previously loud humming stopped as soon as he saw the utter mess the kitchen was in. A disaster of food and goo mixed together everywhere, hanging from the ceiling and in every nook and cranny of the room.

Corran took one large look at it and sighed, muttering out one word. "Quiznack."

It took almost 2 earth hours before Corran was done, the shinning and spotless room making all the effort worth it. "Okay Lance, how about we take a small break and get lunch before continuing?"

At the lack of a responce and the characteristic sound of silence Corran turned around, scanning the area and cursing for the second time that day when he saw no one in sight. 

"Well this is quite the conundrum, it is no matter though. For the great Corran shall use his impeccable detective skills to find his missing comrade!" He walked back out and began making his way around the castle, looking in each place yet finding no Lance anywhere.

By the time he had looked around the entire castle, an incredible feet in itself, hours had passed and yet still he came up empty with no Lance in sight.

"Think Corran, where could he be. It's time to put my intelligence to the test, where's the only other place he could be?" He twirled his moustache thoughtfully, stroking it out of habit when he heard a giggle from somewhere above and to the left.

From the large hallway he was in he could see far, and yet there was no sight of the little troublemaker still. Another giggle and the sound of someone shuffling though metal made Corran look at the vents suspiciously, coming to the conclusion that Lance was crawling though them.

"Lance? Is that you." He heard a knock come from the vents with another laugh, this time louder. "Can't cwatch me!" He giggled out loudly, an unamused look spreading Corran's features.

"Come out here right now or I shall be forced to use drastic measures." Lance shuffled away, a large grin spreading across his face, not that Corran could see it. "That's it! Drastic measures it is." He left, much to Lance's surprise and he he became confused. He wanted Corran to play his game and yet he just walked off, that was no fun at all! And he was so very bored of hiding.

With a grunt he clawed forwards, moving around randomly and lost until he found an exit close to the ground he could climb out. Once he was steady on his two feet he looked around the dark room he found himself in, feeling unsafe and scared. He was starting to regret running away whole Corran was busy earlier. This place was creepy.

Not knowing what to do he began crying, fat tears rolling down his cheeks as he wailed out for anyone to find him.

It only took two minutes for Corran to find him, opening up the door to find Lance standing in the corner of the room, crying. He ran over to the distressed toddler and picked him up swiftly, cradling him and rocking him back and forth to try and calm him down.

Once Lance was calm and the tears had dried Corran finally spoke, concern in his voice. "Are you better now?" Lance nodded and moved closer into Corran's embrace, wanting out of the dark and gloomy room. "Come on then, let's go get lunch." Lance remained still, letting Corran carry him to the kitchen and set him down at the table.

Lance waited patiently until Corran placed a plate of... not very appealing food in front of him. Almost immediately he pushed it away, sticking his tongue out in disgust at it. "Yuck." Corran picked up the spoon of his own plate and shoved some into his mouth, finding the taste to his liking.

"My cooking is great, thank you very much! You clearly just don't have good tastes, becoming younger must have made your taste buds change." The truth was that Corran's cooking was just terrible but he himself didn't believe that and no on head the heart to tell him.

Lance stumbled of his chair and opened the lowest cupboard, one he could reach, to reveal a secret stash of cookies he'd placed there with Hunk. He grabbed a handful and munched on them contently, not minding Corran's offended gibberish.

He managed to climb back up on the chair with a bit of difficulty, seeing the plate that Corran had given him and paying it no attention, he was happy with his cookies.

The mice jumped up and Lance squealed at them, delight on his face as they began eating the disregarded food. "Cute!" He giggled and picked one up with his small hands, being careful not to hurt it. The others all sat on his head and Lance felt excitement bubble up inside him, he loved the mice a lot. Corran wasn't surprised at all when Lance began to name them happily, ending up naming them all after what Corran assumed to be his family back on earth.

Lance looked adorable as he chatted to the mice, an endless stream of words spilling from his mouth clumsily as he talked to them for hours about random things. At least it gives me a break. Corran thought in relief. He couldn't wait for the others to get back, Lance was adorable, but he was still a load of work. 

(Heads up, we see more of the mice in the next one.)