Eternity In The Friend Zone

-The Beginning-

It wasn't the loud beeping that woke Lance up. Or the whooshing noise that followed. Or even the sudden weightlessness he felt. It was the contact with the cold, hard floor that shook him from his coma-like sleep.

He groaned in pain as he began to push himself in a sitting position, running a hand through his chocolate brown hair.

He looked around, noticing the room he was in, the castle's infirmary, was empty. He glanced behind him and saw the vacant pod that he had been in.

What happened? How long was I out? Lance thought, gripping the side of the pod to help him stand.

Bits and pieces came back to him slowly. He remembered the mission was supposed to be easy. In and out. Just a simple prisoner extraction. Keith had said something about a galran woman, working for the blade of Marmora, that was on the ship disguised as a guard. He seemed to very interested in getting her out too. Lance remembered making some sarcastic comment about the person being his girlfriend to which Keith responded with a look that was somewhere between anger and disgust.

While they were on the supposedly easy mission, things had gone wrong and Lance recalled being separated from the group. Things had only gotten blurrier from there. Lance vaguely recalled seeing Lotor and blacking out. From there, he couldn't remember anything else.

He looked around to find anything that could help him figure out how much time had passed but found nothing. No one was here either, which made Lance come to the conclusion that they were asleep.

Lance's stomach growled. He decided to make his way to the kitchen.

He put his hand on the wall next to him to keep himself steady as he walked.

When he finally got to the kitchen he saw the light was on.

Hunk? Lance thought, but something told him it wasn't Hunk. In fact, after thinking about it, he was almost one hundred percent sure it wasn't Hunk, but Shiro. He wasn't exactly sure why, but he was so sure it would be Shiro he would have been willing to bet money on it if he had any money anyway.

He walked in the kitchen and saw none other than Shiro sitting in a chair poking at a bowl of food goo with a spoon.

"Hey, didn't you always tell us not to play with our food?" Lance commented as he walked in, his voice strained. Shiro looked up and gave Lance a half-smile.

"You're awake, good, you took a pretty bad hit. We were all pretty worried." Shiro said. Lance walked into the kitchen, grabbed himself a bowl of food goo, and sat down next to Shiro.

"So what exactly happened?" Lance asked.

"I was about to ask you that, we just found you passed out with several injuries." Shiro said, "What do you remember?"

What do I remember? Lance thought. The words echoed in his head as the weirdest sense of deja vu washed over him.

"I...I remember the mission and...and Lotor was there. He wasn't supposed to be there, right?" Lance asked.

"According to Pidge, this was just a regular galra prisoner transport ship. So yeah, Lotor shouldn't have been there." Shiro said. Lance nodded.

"How long was I out?" Lance asked, after taking a couple of bites of food.

"A few days. Everyone else is asleep. I was waiting by your pod but I got a bit hungry..." Shiro admitted. Lance laughed lightly.

"Man, you almost sounded like Hunk for a minute," Lance commented, making Shiro smile.

"Yeah, guess I did," Shiro said.

"So, Space Dad, did I miss anything?" Lance asked. Shiro rolled his eyes at the nickname.

"Keith went back to the blade for a little bit. He should be back tomorrow. He didn't find the blade member he was looking for so he's trying to find out more information about where she is." Shiro explained.

"Oh yeah, I forgot he was looking for his girlfriend," Lance commented. Shiro gave him a strange look.

"She's definitely not his girlfriend," Shiro said.

"Whatever. Did I miss anything else?" Lance asked.

"Not really. We took the other prisoners we got and dropped them off at one of the rebel bases. The rebels said they can help them get back to their home planets or families." Shiro said. Lance nodded.

Shiro continued talking about the mission but the words were lost to Lance. He felt as if he had already known what had happened. As if he were hearing it for the hundredth time. His head felt fuzzy as if all of his memories somehow seemed both there and not there. He tried to focus on a memory specifically, anything, but nothing worked.

"-nd we...Lance...are you alright?" Shiro asked.

"Y-Yeah...just...my head. My head feels all...fuzzy. I think I'm just tired." Lance said. Shiro nodded.

"You should get some sleep, the pod isn't exactly the same thing as sleeping," Shiro said.

"Yeah, I think I will," Lance said, getting up and setting his bowl in the kitchen.

"I'll ask Allura hold off on the training exercises until your feeling better," Shiro said as Lance was about to walk out.

"Thanks, Shiro," Lance said, before stepping out of the room.

He walked down the hall and towards the Paladin sleeping quarters. He kept his hand on the wall to keep himself steady, as his legs were still not used to walking after several days of no use.

It took him longer than normal, but he managed to get to his room. He opened the door and walked toward his bed, instantly collapsing on it.

He closed his eyes, hoping his head would be clear in the morning.

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A/N: it's been FOREVER since I've posted anything! But I really like this angsty as frickin frick idea I had. So yeah. I'm going to try and stick with it.

Here's to hoping that I don't just abandon this idea and pick up and new one in a week.

Two years later: yeah, I did kind of abandon it...my bad...anyway, I hadn't started posting it yet, so no harm no foul.

Anyway, this is the first thing I've posted in a LONG time and I'm really gonna try and stick with it. Hope you all enjoy!