One Paladin Too Many

Chapter Two

Lance's POV

I turned around slowly at the painfully familiar voice. He was holding my helmet. "uh, yeah. Thanks." I grabbed my helmet swiftly and tried to walk away, making sure my bandages didn't accidentally peep through until I felt his hand grab my shoulder lightly. "Hey, wait," he said, so I stopped. I wanted to talk to red later anyways. "I didn't want to bring it up earlier, because you clearly didn't want to talk, but in the kitchen, you... looked like you were crying. Are you okay? What happened? Do you want to talk about it?" was he... worried? "and I saw you leave red's hangar after the mission, were you crying? I want to make sure you're okay." doubt it. So instead I reply "I'm fine, Keith. I already told you, i..hit my head. I don't want to talk about it, at least not right now. I was crying when I left red's hangar, but I don't know why I ran. it's not like anyone but hunk would actually care if I was crying." I felt my own heart drop at the words that came spilling from my mouth. Before Keith could say another word, I ran towards red. Better to talk to her now than later. "Red! Let me in please!" she lowered her head and I ran inside and as she lifted her head up I turned around to see that Keith had followed me to red, and got there just a minute too late.

I sat in the pilot's chair and started to talk. "Hey red. I think you should take Keith back as your paladin. I was just a placeholder for him anyways. I'll find something else to do. I can help Coran, or since I'm not really needed, I could take a pod home. Or just you know, drift around in space, die out there.-" Red's upset purr interrupted me. No child. You are needed. We all care about you. I see you've injured yourself. What happened to your wrists little blue? Crap. How did she do that? "O-oh, it's nothing red. don't worry." No, my paladin. Blue says it is much more than nothing. She says she saw what happened. Why will you not tell me, dear? "I-i'm sorry Red. I'm not your paladin anymore, Keith is. Speaking of, is he gone?" yes. "let me out then. This was the last time I'll talk to you. I'm sorry for not being as good as Keith. at everything." but- "Let me out." Yes, Lance. She opened her mouth and that was it. I would never fly a lion again. I started to run out of the room with tears forming in my eyes again. Then I started thinking about what blue actually could have seen. For all I know, she could have just seen me crying, or she could have looked through my eyes, through our still existing -very strong- bond, and seen everything I saw. Oh god. I ran into my room, lay down on my bed, and cried until I fell asleep.

I woke up the next morning, realizing -but not really caring- that I missed dinner last night. But if I didn't hurry up, I would miss breakfast too. I slid my jacket on, sleeves long enough so i don't have to make sure I don't move too much and expose the bandages and left the room. I walked into the dining room and of course, I had missed breakfast. Nobody was there. I walked into the kitchen and grabbed a plate of food for myself. I sat down at the table alone and ate my goo in silence. Eventually, the mice sensed my loneliness and came running into the room to eat with me. The mice and I have grown a bond over the past few months, of course not as strong as their bond with Allura, but they understood what I was talking about when I talked, they comforted and cuddled me when I was sad, and sometimes I could hear them talking to me. I guess our bond is getting close to their bond with Allura. Sometimes they would even sleep in my room with me instead of sleeping in Allura's room.

I got up from the table and told the mice to wait there. I walked into the kitchen and grabbed another small plate. I scooped some of my food onto the plate and sat back down. I gave the small plate to the mice and continued on eating what was on my plate. When I was just about done eating I heard the other paladins and Coran walking down the hall, laughing. See. They don't need me. They turned the corner into the dining room, and- "Oh, hey Lance." Shiro said. I just let the mice crawl on to their plate, I grabbed it, put it onto mine and walked into the kitchen to put them away. The mice then ran up my arm and two sat on one shoulder, one on the other, and one lay on top of my head. I walked back out into the dining room so that I could exit and retreat back into my room and be alone for as long as possible. I almost succeeded at passing the paladins without being noticed, but of course, Hunk noticed me. "Hey, where you goin' bud?" I looked at him, with a tired look. "...Back to my room?"

"are you sure that's a good idea? you've been isolating yourself quite a bit lately." Coran piped up. Instead of replying, I just walked out of the room. "wait, Lance-" I heard Keith say just before I was out of the room. That almost made me want to stay. Let me tell you something, Keith and I are supposed to be rivals, but I can't help but feel the way I do about him. I know back on earth I was hated on a lot for being Bi, but Keith is just something else. When I came out as Bi to the rest of the team, hunk and pidge already knew, Keith was definitely one of the most supportive. I remember the 'Bonding moment' Keith always talks about and just the memory of him holding my hand makes my heart swoon. I wish he knew how much I care about him, but it's not like I have much of a chance with him.

I walked into my room and pulled out the lil beds I made for the mice. "if you guys wanna take a nap in here you can. I'm gonna hit the training deck." they nodded and I made my way down to the training deck. "start training sequence one." I called out, activating my bayard. One single robot dropped down from the ceiling. I shot it and two more robots fell down. Eventually, I got to level 19 and I was struggling. Make them see that you're not worthless. You can do this. Only I couldn't. A robot jumped at the opportunity to slash my side. I yelped in pain and turned around to take a headshot. I managed to get all but two down, one on either side of me. There was no way I could take them both down and not get injured more. By now not only did i have a slash on my waist, but also one on the thigh opposite to the one on my waist. I shot the one closest to me and turned around to shoot the other one only for it to cut my cheek. Guess it was closer than I thought. Headshot. "End training sequence," I call out. "Ending training sequence nineteen." the robotic-like voice said. "Putting it in your records, paladin Lance." I wrapped up my side and thigh. I turned to walk out of the room. "ALL PALADINS TO TRANSMISSION ROOM NOW GO GO GO" Allura called over the comms. Ugh. I walked into the transmission room and everyone was there. I stood quietly as I listened to Allura explain what we were doing. There was a planet that needed help. Everyone would get in their lions and go help. Shiro went to blacks hangar, and by instinct with Shiro back and going to black, Keith went to red, so I stayed behind because Allura had already left for blue. "what are you doing lad? Why aren't you going to your lion?" Coran asked. I explained that it's better for the team to have their best soldiers on the front lines and that Keith and Shiro had already left for red and black. I watched out the window as Blue, Yellow, and Green flew out of their hangars. And then a moment later Red and Black. I guess I'm not really needed all that much, am I?