The Grinning Blue Barista (Shance Modern Coffee Shop AU)

Chapter 14

Hey, guys. So sorry about the wait, I know it's been more than a year since the last chapter. College is a lot of work, and I completely forgot about this story. The good news is that COVID-19 has me quarantined (for almost three months now, but we spent a while doing spring cleaning and organizing the attic, not to mention I finished my semester online), so I have some more free time. I re-read this whole story, cause I'd forgotten a lot of the details, so now I'm ready to finally continue it. Sorry, once again, and enjoy this chapter. Thank you to all of the comments I've gotten in the past year, reading them again made me want to finish this fic.

*!*!* Also, just in case it isn't clear, Matt is Hunk and Lance's age in this fic, instead of being near Shiro's age.

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Hunk watched Lance as he slept. He was obviously tired, he had fallen asleep almost immediately against Hunk's side. It worried Hunk, everything did; Lance seemed almost too okay after having Lotor break up with him. He hadn't even had a cry session with Hunk, where he'd give him all the details, and Hunk would give him all of the hugs. They always had cry sessions whenever anything awful happened, it was tradition, it always helped Lance process and move on.

Hunk paused the movie.

Pidge and Matt looked up from where they were sitting on the floor to Hunk on the couch.

"I'm worried," Hunk started. "For Lance. He seems so okay so fast, I worry he's hiding how bad it really is. He barely even gave me any details, just said that Lotor broke up with him and that he got a cat. The Lotor thing is huge, a cat wouldn't fix everything, what if he's repressing his feelings and he thinks he's okay but he isn't and later he breaks down?"

"I don't know." Pidge picked up a pillow to hug to their chest. "He didn't give any specifics about the situation. He isn't that good at hiding when something's wrong, though, you can always see it in his eyes."

"Yeah, he'd definitely be avoiding us if he was actively aware that something was wrong and he didn't want to tell us." As always, Matt made a good point. He smoothed out the blanket he and Pidge were under. "Having said that, we can still keep an eye on him to make sure that he's alright."

"Yeah." Hunk loved his friends. "You're right."

Hunk looked back to Lance's face, peaceful. Would Lance be sleeping so peacefully if he wasn't okay?

No, Hunk decided, Lance tended to have nightmares unless everything was A-Ok. If he was resting, he'd be fine.

Hunk wrapped his arms around himself. 'Guess there's not going to be a cry session, then.' He hated that that news didn't make him happy; It should, since it meant that Lance was okay, but it was one of the only things he could really do for his friend and now he couldn't even do that.

Blue curled up next to Pidge, content to lie among all the blankets and pillows the siblings had set up around themselves.

He pressed play and let Coraline's adventure distract him from the ever-churning wheel of anxiety he called his brain.

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Lance woke up to light snoring from both Hunk and Pidge. Matt had always been a quiet sleeper, while the other three snored and mumbled, Pidge sometimes even spoke in their sleep, it was the only time they made no sense.

Getting up from the couch, Lance quietly made his way to the kitchen, even though he knew that all three of his friends were pretty deep sleepers and definitely wouldn't wake up at the sound of footsteps.

When he got to the kitchen, Lance checked the fridge for breakfast options. There wasn't a lot, but he could make eggs. He probably had pancake mix somewhere, too, but they'd had that the last time they slept over, so Lance decided he would surprise them with scrambled eggs.