I'm still here

Secrets

The boys pulled the small boat into the ship as lance roped it up and threw one of the ropes to Keith to help raise the space boat in under the larger boat as they were full of adrenaline and Keith was smiling brightly from the trip.

"Having a little trouble there?" Keith panted as he pulled the rope faster than lance as he leaned back to back with the alien cyborg.

"Get away from me," lance pulled hard to make them even as they laughed together

"Man, if I could maneuver a skit like that before, they'd be bowing in the streets when I walked by," lance panted smirking as he knotted the rope on the metal hinge and fell back in the seat. Red mimicking him as it laid on Lances shoulder.

"I don't know," Keith gave one last pull and did the same knot on his hinge as he sat down near lance smirking back. "They weren't exactly singing my praise when I left,"

"But I'm gonna change all that," Keith glanced at lance as he wiped the sweat through his hair and put his captains hat back on.

"Oh? How so?" Lance snorted looking at red and cooed at the blob.

"Uh, I got some plans, gonna make people see me a little different," Keith crossed his legs leaning back.

Lance paused and thought to himself as he slowly turned to Keith who looked satisfied with his plan in his head. It reminded him of himself.

"Sometimes plans go astray," lance sighed softly.

"Not this time," Keiths face didn't change, he seemed to believe himself.

Lance rolled his eyes and groaned as he lifted his robotic leg on the seat with him and red morphed into a tool for him. He could feel his kneecap loosening up with the gears.

"Thank you pretty thing," lance smiled and tightened the bolt that replaced his joint.

"So uh, how'd any of those happen anyways?" Keith noticed and crossed his arms less relaxed.

"You loose a few things, chasing a dream," lance smiled sadly at his leg.

"Did they happen together?" Keith gulped sitting up.

"No, my leg... I grew up with it, I don't remember much without it," lance patted the prosthetic smirking. "Built my first leg,"

"How old?" Keith pursed his lips.

"Not old enough, I lost a lot of things that day, unfortunately my leg was another thing I had to remember it by," lance nodded and kept his eyes down. He remembered his brothers sobbing, Veronica holding her choked cry back as they watched their home burn down. Next thing he knew both him and his sister were in the hospital.

"It was the day I lost my mum," he whispered nodding hoping keith didn't hear but he did. He stayed silent.

"But this bastard, I started with loosing my pinky," lance brightened up immediately as he held his metal pinky up to show. "I lost a bet with that, and the arm with just another accident, it happens,"

Keith stayed quiet as he noticed the edge of something blue on Lances face, almost like the sweat revealed it. He reached up to Lances face and went to wipe the blue away but lance flinched to hard and Keith accidentally revealed more blue. A marking.

"Hey what the hell?" Lance covered his cheek with wide eyes.

"There was something on your face," Keith was taken back a little.

"Yea, your fucking finger," lance stood up but Keith grabbed his wrist and kept him there.

"What are you hiding? Chief?" Keith teased a little with empathy in his eyes, telling lance it would stay between them.

Lance felt like he couldn't breathe as he was already sitting back down. Letting Keith wipe away the dirt he used to hiding his bloodline. That he was a different species.

"You had markings?" Keith smirked a little as he wiped the rest of the dirt on Lances other cheek to show the blue crescent markings, something only an altean would have. Like Allura.

"Lance are you altean?" Keith whispered to him quietly.

"Only Allura knows, don't tell anyone else," Lance didn't look at him.

"Why do you care if people know your altean?" Keith asked softly. "They're rare,"

"Because I've done a lot of things that I regret Keith, to chase a dream, and an endangered species cyborg is easy to point out," lance glanced up as his pupils flashed mint green under the blue, it reminded Keith of the shore of a beach and sea, where the sand meets.

"After this trip, people will see us both differently," he breathed looking down at keith as they seemed closer. Keith was locked with his eyes as Lances lids were hooded keeping them focused on Keith. His lips, his jaw, his eyes.

Lance closed his eyes and trusted himself to lean forward.

But suddenly the whole ship rocked to the side from some sort of impact sending the two boys flying as keith landed on Lance while they both ended up on the ground.

"You okay?" Lance asked collecting himself a little not knowing what was going on.

"I'm fine," Keith coughed blushing red as they helped each other up.

"Let's go on deck, we could be getting attacked," Lance looked up hearing footsteps but they grunted when another impact hit the ship but they were sturdy and didn't fall.

Lance ran ahead as keith was close being while lance held onto his captains hat before it blew away from when they hit the deck and wind was blowing everywhere.

"What the devil?" Lance breathed as keith was behind him with wide eyes.

"It's a black hole..."