Chapter Text
“I’m just sayin’, like, if you guys need any extra help down there, I can come with…” Lance said slowly, raising an eyebrow, leaning in closer to Shiro. “You never know what you might face down there. You might need your Sharp Shooter, am I right?”
“Ugh, can you stop with that name?” Pidge huffed, rolling her eyes. “Hunk is already going, and he’s got a pretty big shooting gun, too. I think we’ll be fine.”
Lance crossed his arms, his lips shaping into a frown. “It wouldn’t hurt to have an extra hand. I don’t need to stay back in the castle while all of you get to infiltrate that ship.”
Shiro exhaled patiently and placed a hand on Lance’s shoulder. “All four of us are going, Lance, along with the guys from the Blade of Marmora. We need you to stay back here to help Coran and Allura. We’ll be fine.”
The Blade of Marmora.
Lance stepped back, out of Shiro’s way, and nodded. “If you say so,” he mumbled.
He watched as the team left, with the soldiers of the Blade of Marmora at their feet. He was no longer the seventh wheel, then. More like the twelfth. Or thirteenth, if he counted Slav. To be honest, Slav was valued more on this castle; everyone seemed to have gotten used to his antics, and so he spent the majority of his time working with Allura, Hunk, Pidge and Coran, the other tech geeks.
Of course, Shiro and Keith were spending the majority of their time with Kolivan and his soldiers. Keith out of kinship, mostly. Lance couldn’t blame him. Finding out you are Galra, afterall, is not easy. It made sense for him to seek answers from Kolivan and to try and bond with them.
But at one point… it started to feel like everyone’s focus began to shift.
Sure, they were still out to find Zarkon. But being weakened, he was no longer posing any imminent threats, which gave the team more time to tend back to their personal missions. Allura and Coran were travelling around Space Malls in pursuit of Altean items to help enhance the castle and redesign it so it feels more like “home”.
Shiro was still recovering, of course, after having been located weeks after disappearing during the fight. He was easing back into training, and Kolivan seemed to teach him many skills about fighting with his Galran arm. Kolivan also appeared to be a wonderful teacher for Keith, who spent an unnerving amount of time in the Blade of Marmora uniform, practicing with his Galran blade and learning the language.
Hunk, meanwhile, was simply enjoy his time with Shay, who had decided to join them abroad the castle. She loved to bake with him; they always tried new recipes. She also helped him and Pidge work with the crystal to improve the machinery in the castle.
Lastly, Pidge was… well, she was happier than Lance had ever seen her. They had located her brother, Matt, on one of their missions to pursue a distress signal. Her father’s whereabouts remained a mystery, but she was adamant to find him. She spent most of her time catching up with Matt while they worked on a new project together. They were a pair of very, very smart siblings.
Which left Lance.
Too incompetent to train with Keith and Shiro and their squad (and definitely not cool or brooding enough). Not smart enough to hang around Pidge and Hunk. Not Altean enough to spend time with Allura and Coran (unless he was doing a chore). Too awkward to sit with Hunk and his girlfriend or with Pidge and her long-lost brother.
So… yeah. He was pretty lonely, even in a castle with over fifteen inhabitants.
Okay, to be fair, maybe the cow kept him company occasionally.
But that was… it.
“Lance, are you alright?” Coran asked, snapping his fingers in front of Lance’s face. “You haven’t been listening to me, have you? Your thoughts are wandering.”
Lance let his arms drop to his sides, and he gave Coran a small smile. “Sorry.”
“I was wondering if you would like to go clean the healing pods while you wait?”
The smile dropped off Lance’s face, and he groaned. “Do I have to?”
“Well, you’re the one who wanted something to do.”
“…. Fine.”
Lance sighed, shoving his hands in his pockets and heading out towards the healing room. If he were to be honest, he felt that he was cleaning the pods more than he was even out fighting in his lion nowadays.
Though it may sound like it, he wasn’t sulking. He wasn’t, okay? But seriously, it was hard to keep pushing it aside. It had felt fine at first; If Pidge was busy, he would go annoy Keith. If Keith was busy, he would hang out with Hunk. But then they all got busy, and Lance would often find himself sitting in the control room, staring out at space, or hanging out with Blue at the Hangars.
What was out here for him, anyway? He rested his head against the interior of the pod (was this the fifth one he’s cleaned already? He hadn’t kept count), slouching down with a wet towel in hand. Even if Zarkon were to return…. what would he do? For all he knew, Kolivan or Antok might be able to pilot Blue in his place. She was the friendliest lion, after all, and most likely to accept a new paladin.
And he really, really missed Earth. He wanted to go home.
In fact, he felt that he should.
If no one needed him out in space, and if it was slowly ripping him apart to be there (he wished he was exaggerating, but some days it truly felt that way), then…. why should he stay? He, quite literally, could not think of a solid reason for him to stay.
And yet, he was too cowardly to leave.
Maybe I’ll just wait for Allura to kick me out, he thought. Then I won’t feel guilty about abandoning a mission to save the universe. Well, actually, I’ll feel pretty terrible about being so useless, but––
“Lance!”
He snapped out of his thoughts, looking up to where Allura’s voice came from the speakers. “Yes, princess?”
“They’re in trouble. They need something––or someone––to distract the Galra from the outside. Do you think you can keep their attention occupied for a little while?”
Oh, yes, dodging fire from hundreds of Galra fleets all alone was always fun, wasn’t it?
“I’ll be out there in a minute, Princess.” He said instead.
Well, at least it was something to do.