Eternity In The Friend Zone

-The Confrontation-

After hours of pouring through old books on everything from magic to the meaning of life, Lance found nothing of use.

He figured he'd likely come up empty. He wouldn't have been surprised if he had tried this in one of his previous loops. As he read through the old books, he started to get a headache that only seemed to grow after each text he combed through.

Eventually, Lance gave up on his search and decided to get some food. He felt quite tired, but didn't want to wake Keith.

Lance stood up, grabbing Keith's bag, which contained the clothes Lance had washed for Keith. He had put them in the makeshift dryer at some point, as well as going back to grab them when they were dry. He wasn't entirely sure why he had grabbed them when he could have just left them for Keith to grab, but he did it anyway.

As Lance walked to the kitchen, he set Keith's bag outside Lance's own bedroom door so that Keith would find it when he woke up.

Once Lance got to the kitchen, he grabbed some food, he found leftovers of whatever Hunk had bought from the space mall, he knew Hunk wouldn't mind, and ate them slowly.

His head was still pounding by the time he finished his food. He tried to calm it with a tall glass of cold water, which also didn't seem to help.

Lance just sighed to himself and sat back down at the table, drinking more water. He laid his head down on the table, in his crossed elbows, hoping to block out the light.

He was interuppted from his silence when the door to the kitchen opened. Lance peaked up from his elbows and saw Keith standing in the doorway looking somewhat shocked. He wore his typical civilan clothes that Lance had washed for him, along with the blades uniform.

"Lance? You're awake?" Keith said, sounding surprised.

"Yeah...you do know I was the one who let you sleep in my bed right?" Lance asked. Keith looked away for a moment, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck.

"I didn't know actually. I figured Shiro let me in." Keith said.

"Nope, it was me. Shiro and everyone else were all down at the space mall when you showed up. You knocked on my door, thought it was Shiro's room. You looked tired so I let you in. Washed your clothes for you too." Lance said.

"So they were your pj's then..." Keith said.

"Yeah, who else do you think wears blue around here?" Lance asked, though his usual sarcasm was not in it.

"I guess I didn't notice the color." Keith said. Then his face went slightly red.

"You didn't um...you didn't undress me did you?" Keith asked awkwardly. Lance laughed lightly.

"What's wrong Mullet? Something you don't want me to see?" Lance said teasingly. Keith shot him a look, though his face was still red from what Lance assumed was embarrassment.

"No, I didn't undress you. You somehow managed to do that yourself after being awake for more than seventy hours straight." Lance said. Keith just nodded, then walked over and grabbed himself a plate and some food.

"When did you wake up?" Keith asked as he sat down at the table.

"A little while before you showed up." Lance said.

Lance's head was still pounding, but it was less noticeable as he talked to Keith.

"Do you know what happened back on the ship? Shiro said you were the first one to find me." Lance said, though he realized Shiro hadn't said that, at least, not in this loop.