There has to be an After for Us ~ (shadam / klance)

Chapter 16 - Bonding Revisited

Apparently Keith's idea of comforting someone was to yell at them. Lance remembered what this mother had once told him: That if someone is upset and you don't know what to say, offer them a hug. Sometimes that's the thing they need the most.

Keith didn't offer Lance a hug so Lance found himself wrapping his own arms across his chest, holding himself because he felt like everything from inside him was threatening to pour out. Lance hadn't decided to bare his soul, it had just happened and now he was listening to the anger in Keith's voice. He knew what Keith was really mad about, what any of them would be mad about when they found out how bad things were inside Lance's head...

How dare you, Lance!

We trusted you to be okay.

We trusted you to keep a smile on your face no matter what.

We trusted you to be the clown,

To be the butt of the joke,

To be the punching bag,

To be the seventh wheel,

To provide cover while the real heroes did their work.

We trusted you to live off the attention we'd only offer if you annoyed us enough.

And he'd wanted so much attention from Keith. And he'd tried for so long. He'd tried for years to be worthy of Keith's attention and Keith was so good at simply walking away. And after what Keith just said, apparently it was also Lance's fault that Keith had left.

"I never would've asked you to do that!" yelled Lance, his pain erupting out of him. "This whole time I thought you'd abandoned us, abandoned our mission and you just didn't want my feelings to get hurt?"

"No! That's not the reason!" Then Keith cried out and he fell to his knees.

"Keith!" cried Lance, in a panic.

Lance was immediately on Keith, prying at him, wanting to inspect him, looking for where he was shot. Because he must've been shot, otherwise he wouldn't have just dropped like that. Keith was gripping his stomach so Lance tried to pull at his arms, asking if he could look. "No, I'm fine," said Keith through gritted teeth. He'd taken an arm from his stomach only to wave Lance away.

He didn't look fine, but Lance wasn't sure what to do. Yell at Keith to stop being so weird about touching and let him look?

Keith got up to his feet, but he looked tense still. His breathing was shallow, his back a bit hunched. "I just wanted to tell you," began Keith and Lance nearly snapped realizing Keith was ignoring his own physical pain to continue their argument like the petty jerk that he was. "I wanted to say that you're worthy." Keith inhaled deep and stood up a bit straighter, the tension leaving his brow.

Lance let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. He'd been so scared for Keith and he felt this rush of relief that he was okay.

"You're worthy of anyone you want," continued Keith. "And I didn't leave because I didn't want you to get your feelings hurt. I left because I thought you might do something stupid like volunteer to leave and that would've been a big mistake. The team can't go on without you."

"Yeah, but what about you. We couldn't -"

"I was replaced by a clone of Shiro and you guys kept going... for awhile anyway... But without you we would've been hopeless. You're the heart of them team."

Lance was skeptical. "I think you're making fun of me somehow..."

"No, you're the heart," said Keith, getting angry which actually sounded more sincere to Lance's ears.