Old Habits Die Hard

Things Go From Good To Bad Very, Very Quickly

Lance wouldn't call his mindset "good", but it's definitely better. His medicine and therapy has worked wonders. He's far from cured, but he'll take any improvement that he can get. As his depression improved, so did his daily life. He got better grades more easily and was able to maintain some awesome relationships. Hunk was basically the best person ever. It was almost as if they had known each other for years. His growing relationship with Pidge was also really nice, and Hunk probably appreciated having someone in the group that could understand all of the tech mumbo-jumbo that he was so interested in. Lance tried to understand, he really did, but a lot of it was simply beyond his level.

Lance would have never guessed that he could ever feel this good ever again.

"Lance! You're going to run into something!" A desperate Pidge cried out. They were holding onto their chair so tightly that their knuckles were almost completely white. Hunk had jumped up from his seat and puked in some unknown section of the ship that did God knows what.

Lance flashed a smug smile at them. "Don't you worry about that. They call me the tailor because of how I thread the-"

"Look out!"

The ship crashed straight into some sort of space debri, and a message popped up on the window screen reading: "simulation failed". That must be at least the third time that they've failed it.

As they exited the ship, an angry voice could be heard.

"And that's the perfect example of what not to do," it said. The voice belonged to their instructor, and today he seemed to be in an even worse mood than usual, if possible. There was definitely a lecture coming.

Before he could start going off on Hunk and Pidge, however, Lance decided that he would simply draw all of the aggression towards him. It was the least he could do to thank his friends for putting up with him everyday.

"Sorry, sir... that was my fault," he said quietly. Iverson turned quickly towards him, his face contorted into a scowl. Oh, boy. There was a storm coming.

"Damn right it was!" He took a step towards Lance and yelled in his face. "What the hell were you doing out there?" Before Lance even had a chance to answer, Iverson was talking again. "Don't forget that you're only here because the person at the top of the class dropped out! I sure hope that you don't intend to follow in his footsteps."

Ouch. Now that hurt a little bit. Was he really so pathetic- no. He's been better lately, he's not about to let that be ruined now.

"N-no, sir," Lance stuttered out. He hoped that his face didn't show how the comment really made him feel.

After the three failures were dismissed from class, they discussed what happened. Pidge seemed a bit upset with the events that had occurred.

"What the fuck, Lance?" She said, anger tickling in her voice. "Why did you say that? It wasn't all your fault!"

At this, Lance simply shrugged. "Well, it definitely wasn't either of you guys' faults. It doesn't really matter, though. I don't care what he says!" At this last statement, Lance flashed a confident grin that was only half fake.

Pidge groaned and punched his shoulder. "You are the worst." They let out a laugh so genuine that Lance couldn't help but to smile too. This is what he lived for: making other people happy.

Lance looked over to Hunk, who still looked slightly green. He was leaned against the wall and looked incredibly uncomfortable. Lance walked over and patted him softly on the back, giving him a sympathetic look.

Hunk looked up at his friend's concerned face and smiled weakly, giving a shaky thumbs up. "I'm good."

That night, after all of the faculty had finished patrolling the halls, the group agreed to sneak up to the roof together. They definitely deserved a break, and this is just what the doctor ordered: stargazing on the rooftop at 3 am.