The Red Paladins Klance

Chapter 3

It was about 2 days before Lance finally remembered and realized why he kept feeling a familiar warmth pressed to his back whenever he trained. He and Keith used to train back to back whenever they faced the drones. “The only way this is going to work is if we go back to back!” Keith shouted. “Good plan! That way, we can protect each other better!” Lance shouted back. So they did that. Lance continued to both fire and shield himself from the drones, occasionally checking on Keith. “You doing all right over there?” He shouted. “Focus on yourself, Lance, not me!” Keith shouted back.

  Lance’s eyes widened when he saw a drone coming in from Keith’s blind side. “Watch out!” He shouted, side-stepping around Keith and quickly changing his bayard into his sword, striking the drone through the middle. The move left him exposed, but Keith was already there, using his shield to defect the other drones’ fire. Lance felt a swell of admiration and gratefulness, mainly because he had not completely expected that. He didn’t realize he was staring until he got hit by one of the drones. He quickly whirled around, slicing through them all. Keith watched him, taking off his helmet as the sequence ended, wide-eyed. Then he smiled, proud. He’s been doing so well. “That was good, Lance. Really good.” He said, his pride leaking through his voice.

“Well, I had a good teacher.” Lance said, smiling.

He took his helmet off, wiping his forehead. He had helmet hair, which he scowled at before fixing. Then he quickly smiled again, “Iverson told me not to follow in your footsteps once. And he’s got a point. I don’t want to follow in your footsteps. It’s much better for me to follow alongside them.” He said. Keith’s eyes widened in shock and surprise. He felt so touched by that. Then Lance lightly tossed his helmet into the air before catching it, “Well, I’m off to take a shower. But we’ll talk later, yeah? It’s times like this that I’m really glad you’re back, Keith. I missed you.” He said as he walked past Keith, grasping his shoulder. Keith turned to watch him as he left, not realizing he was holding in his breath.

   He vaguely walked out a minute or so after, taking off his Paladin suit. Later on, when they were all in the main control room, Keith couldn’t stop staring at Lance. Remembering what he said. His cheeks were turning red again, and he was not aware of Shiro trying to catch his attention. “Keith!” Shiro nudged him, making him snap out of his trance. “Wha-what?” He asked, turning to Shiro. “You all right? You’re kinda zoning out.” Shiro asked. “Yeah.” Keith said. He snuck another glance at Lance before looking back to Shiro. “I’m fine.” He said.

Shiro turned to Allura, “Sorry, Princess. Carry on.” He said.

Allura nodded, “Of course. This mission requires strategy and skill. That is why Keith and Lance will be the ones doing it. You two have been progressing well together, and you both have very impressive skill and strategy. Your job is to figure out how to get into the base, extract the information on the changed Galra troop rotations, and get out without anybody seeing you. I am sure you will both succeed without complications. You have around 20 doboshes before the information is given to Galra HQ, so plan quickly, and get out there as soon as you can.” Allura said. Lance had caught Keith’s eye and flashed a smile at him when Allura had said they were progressing well together, which Keith returned. It was true, and Keith would not hesitate to say that. He was actually rather proud of it.

  When the meeting was finished, Lance went to Keith. “I know, I know. You’re excited to do this mission with me, but we need to focus, all right?” He said playfully, hand on his hip. Keith scoffed, but he smiled, “I am, actually. I can’t see myself doing it with anyone else, really.” He admitted. “You’re hopeless without me, Mullet.” Lance teased. “Nah. It’s actually because no one matches my skills like you do.” Keith said. Lance’s eyes widened in surprise. Keith shook his head as if to clear it, and put his hand on Lance’s shoulder, leading him out of the control room, “All right, come on. We gotta figure out a plan. Got any ideas?” He asked as they walked through the halls together.