Little Blue Space Boy

Chapter 9

//Keith's POV//

The team decided to take the day off from training today, seeing as Allura has worked us to death these last two weeks. During this two week time span, Lance hasn't had any time to slip properly. He'd do minor things like cuddle with Scout and occasionally suck his thumb but he'd never go past that. But at least we get the day off and we're going to the Space Mall, I could finally buy some things for Lance. I've been meaning to, but we never have the time. He's also been constantly stressed. It doesn't help that Allura has been reprimanding him for small things that he doesn't have control over. Shiro has been yelling at him the entire week for talking while he's barely said a single word to them. He's trained like hell and no one cares, he's on a higher level than all of us, yet the just seem to yell at him for small things. It's taking a toll on him and I'm the only one who's noticed. I gently shook Lance to wake him up.

"Wake up, Lance. We're going to the mall today with the rest of the circus clowns." I said. He rubbed his eyes and groaned.

"Circus clowns?" He said sleepily. I nodded and picked him up since he refused to get up on his own.

"Why are you up, you flaming idiot? I wanna sleep," he complained. I chose to ignore the "flaming idiot" portion and continued to walk towards our bathroom.

"Nooooo," he whined as I began to turn on the shower.

"Look, we can take a shower together if you want. As long as you get in the damn shower," I laughed. He groaned but complied saying he wanted to take one by himself. Just for fun I sprayed him with cold water, getting some on myself in the process, but his reaction was priceless.

"You absolute doofus of a dork," he yelled. I wheezed at the less than insulting insult he had just given me.

"Sorry Princess, your reaction was just too funny." He scowled at his new nickname and stuck his tongue out at me. We each showered and got ready for our day. As we walked out to the dining area, we passed Pidge, who raised her eyebrows at us suggestively. The two of us turned beet red and walked away from her as quickly as possible while she laughed  whole heartedly. We sat down with our bowls of food goo and listened as Shiro began to plan out our day.

"Alright, so we're planning on going to the mall today. So we're going to be walking in pairs. Hunk and Pidge will be together along with Keith and I. Allura and Coran will be a pair. Lance you'll be staying to train considering your lack of efficiency." Shiro said. Lance looked down but gave a nod. That's when I got pissed.

"Uh no, he won't be staying here to train while the rest of us go have fun. His training hours rival my own, not to mention the fact that he's on a higher level than you. You try and put him down for the smallest things, he works harder than all of us and is doing better than all of us. So no, he'll be pairing with me and that's final." Lance looked at me like I was crazy, but there was a glint of gratitude that didn't go unnoticed. Shiro scowled but complied.

The trip to the mall wasn't long. Hunk, Pidge, Lance, and I immediately raced in, not looking behind us to Shiro who was calling for us to wait. Lance and I walked into numerous stores. The equivalent to Hollister and Hot Topic, the "Earth Store," and even a bookshop. We came across a toy store and he immediately grabbed my arm and pulled me inside.

"Alright, slow down hot shot," I chuckled.

"Keef, look there are so many toys!" He squealed. He clearly slipped. I held his hand as we looked through the toys. His eye immediately caught a Stitch stuffed animal. Huh, guess Lilo and Stitch is a universal favorite, I mean they have the toys in a space mall.

"I used to watch Wiwo and Stitch with my bwothewrs," he said. He completely butchered the pronunciation of his r's and l's, but it was adorable. Some of his r's sounded like w's while others sounded more like wr's, my heart just about melted when he called me "Keef" too. He hugged the toy close, it was obvious I was going to get it for him.