Inhibition

The Next Day

Allura, Hunk, and Pidge were awake and performing their morning rituals loooong before Keith or Lance moved from their rooms. They were far too curious to see how the previous day's events would play out. Especially since Pidge had ten bucks riding on this.

Allura stood in front of the control room, impatiently tapping her fingers against her control panel. "Neither of them are coming. I'd expect this from Lance, but what is taking Keith so long?"

"He's probably got a huge hangover, Princess," Hunk explained, "maybe we should let him sleep it off."

Just then the door slid open, and Keith walked in, an even more sour expression on his face than usual. "'Morning," he grumbled, his eyes barely open.

The others glanced at each other, then watched as he made his way to the front. "Any updates on the healing pods, Allura?"

"What? Oh! The pods... right! Well, Pidge and Coran were going to be shutting off some systems today so they can get them fixed... weren't you, Pidge?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah! We'll try to prioritize the pods, though, okay Keith?"

He grumbled something sounding vaguely like confirmation, then walked back out the door, followed by everyone's eyes.

When the doors closed, they all looked back at each other for a few seconds, then simultaneously, without speaking, jumped out of their chairs and began to follow after him.

~~~~~

**Coran**

Coran hadn't slept much while he tried to fix the castle, so he was already awake and attempting to repair the ship's deep-space scanner when Lance strolled into the room, dressed in his usual day-to-day wear but still wearing his skin-care mask.

"Oh, Lance, good to see you up and about."

Lance paused, looking around the room. "This... isn't the kitchen."

Coran shook his head, hiding a grin under his mustache. "No no, that's not even close to here. But Hunk made breakfast, so you should go eat something."

Lance nodded slowly, then started to leave the room, but turned and walked into the wall instead.

Coran raised an eyebrow. "You alright, Lance? You seem a bit out of sorts today."

"Me? Oh, I'm fine. I think maybe I'm tired from the fight on Liliria. Anyway, see ya, Coran!"

Coran watched him go for a moment, tempted to follow after him, then shook his head and went back to his repairs, musing to himself, "Ah, I remember when I was a cadet that age. Had a big crush on the supervising officer, but that was certainly pushed away when she had me wash a Jarkorian Vollmar as punishment when she found out. Well, the crush stayed, but I didn't feel like pursuing it. Hmm... I wonder what would've happened if I had..."

~~~~~

Hunk, Pidge, and Allura peeked around the corner as Keith headed to the sinks, noting the way he stared at the water running out of the faucet for like ten seconds before actually splashing it across his face.

He splashed his face about eight times, aggressively scrubbing it after each time, before grabbing the towel and wiping it dry.

"So... you think he remembers, or not?" Hunk whispered.

"I dunno. He hasn't given any indication either way," Pidge answered.

"Shush, you two!" urged Allura, who pushed them over when Keith turned around to look back toward them. This time it was Hunk who lost his footing, jumping to his feet before Keith could walk into him. "Oh hey, Keith. Just gonna brush my teeth. I made breakfast, if you want some."