shining like the stars

48

When Hunk opened the door, it was to see Lance in the middle of the room, picking over the crate of miscellaneous scraps that the junk seller had pushed on them, along with the crate of busted up Galra tech. Lance looked up at the sound of the door opening, but didn't even have the gall to look startled. "Come back for your clothes?" Hunk asked, as the door shut behind him.

"Yeah," Lance said. He was wearing a towel, or at least holding one mostly shut. He picked up metal tubing and held it out at Hunk. "You realize that there's a lightsaber in here?"

"That's not a lightsaber," Hunk said. "And don't point it at me, I don't know what it is, but it's not a lightsaber."

Lance flicked the button on the tube a few times, then pointed the end at his face and frowned at it. Hunk shook his head and retrieved Lance's tunic, from where he'd hung it by the door. "It's broken," Lance complained, and dropped the metal tube back into the crate.

"Funny how that works, when it's a crate of junk," Hunk said. He hesitated a moment, looking over at Lance, who seemed ... himself, and then sighed. "Look, is everything ... all right?"

Lance looked up at Hunk and blinked once, owlishly. "Why wouldn't it be? Did Shiro say something?"

"No, Shiro didn't say anything." Hunk stepped back into the main part of the room, Lance's tunic now folded over his arm. He stopped, though, before he got too close to Lance; he could see that the bite mark on Lance's shoulder was vivid, and bruised a deep purple. "I'm worried about you."

This seemed to puzzle Lance further. He sat down, legs crossing under him automatically, one hand still holding the towel closed, the other braced on his knee. "I'm fine," Lance said, and rubbed his neck with one hand and then winced a little. "Oh," he said, realization dawning as his fingers brushed the bite on the back of his neck. "Is this because I've bonded to Shiro?"

"What?" Hunk said, his voice going high. "You did what?"

Lance's cheeks went pink. "You don't have to sound so happy for me," he snapped, and crossed his arms.

"I, man-" Hunk sat down next to the crate, an arm's length away, staring at Lance. Lance glared right back at him, and Hunk sighed. "Dude, I want to be happy for you, okay? I'm just worried. You have a bad track record with alphas-"

Lance narrowed his eyes. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"-and isn't Shiro in love with Keith, anyway?" Hunk finished out, as if Lance hadn't interrupted.

"So you're okay with us doing our thing if it's just sex, but when it's more than that, that's when you get all shirty?" Lance said.

"Are you even in love with Shiro?" Hunk demanded, and Lance slapped both of his hands on his knees.

"What the fuck, Hunk-" He started to get to his feet. "All right, you know what? I'm done. Gimme my shit and I'll go."

Hunk watched him. "I don't want to see you hurt again," he said, finally, and Lance flushed red.

"Shiro's not gonna hurt me."

"Yeah, but what if he does?" Hunk's voice was level. Lance stood there, chest heaving and glaring at Hunk like he could incinerate him with his eyes, and Hunk matched his gaze evenly. "What then, Lance?"

"He's not gonna," Lance said. His hand went to the back of his neck again, touching that bite, that reminder. "He didn't even want to, I begged him to..." he trailed off, gone red again, this time from embarrassment. "Hunk, you're my best friend, okay? You're like a brother to me. Trust me, I'm okay. Everything's okay with this, and if anything isn't you will be the first to know."