I need you //klance

Part eighteen

Lance and the rest of the team, excluding Keith, were sitting at the dinning table.
Lance was slightly annoyed that no one had said anything about Keith's absence when they were always so quick to pick on him when he was late but he understood that Keith needed to prepare himself.

Lance was feeling quite a bit of second hand nervousness and kept playing with his food instead of actually eating it. No one seemed to notice so it was fine.

Of course they wouldn't notice, they don't even want you here. Why would they waste their time paying attention to you?

Lance shook the thoughts away. That wasn't fair to Keith right now. He was going through such a hard time at the moment, he needed the attention right now, not him.

Just then the door swished open, revealing an anxious Keith. He was fiddling with his hands and kept chewing what Lance assumed to be the inside of his cheek.
"Hey Keith." Lance waved and smiled reassuringly to him.
Keith looked at him and exhaled heavily while the others looked up from their conversations to watch the exchange.
"I have something to tell you guys."

This bought him everyone's attention. Even Pidge looked up from her laptop and pushed up the glasses on her nose.

Lance nodded encouragingly to Keith who stopped fiddling with his hands only to start fiddling with his jacket.
"Well erm. I- I'm Er...." He exhaled again, "I'm... part Galra.."

Keith looked down at the floor, biting his lip anxiously and tensing his shoulders- expecting the worst reactions.
Lance smiled up at Keith but both of them were disheartened by their friends reactions.
They had all stood up which caused Keith to flinch a little, although none of them seemed to have noticed it.
Hunk cautiously stepped back while Pidge looked at him calculatingly as if she was dissecting him in her mind.
Coran stepped behind Hunk, Shiro didn't react since he already knew but still looked a little unnerved.

Then there was Allura. She looked downright furious.
Lance stood up to stand next to Keith, who was shaking slightly.
"Princess-"
"No! You stay out of this paladin! And you! I trusted you! Now it makes so much sense! YOU'VE BEEN LYING TO US THIS WHOLE TIME! YOUR A MONSTER AND A FREAK. I ORD-"
"Princess..." Lance growled. He was also shaking but not from fear. Instead it was anger.
Allura ignored him.
"I want you off my ship. I will not tolerate a lying, murderer on board. This is an Altean ship. Do you find it funny?! Staying on a ship that used to be filled with people! People you killed! I can't bel-"
"ALLURA! Shut up!"
She went quiet, surprised at Lance's outburst and his use of her name.
Lance turned to Keith and put a hand on his shoulder. He leaned in to whisper in his ear.
"Keith I left my jacket in my room. Could you go get it for me? I'll handle this okay?"
Lance smiled to Keith and squeezed his shoulder. Keith nodded silently and rushed out the room.

As soon as the door closed, Lance turned back to Allura.
"What the fuck, Allura! He obviously just found out so he hasn't been lying. The only people he's killed are Galra soldiers. He's no more a murderer than you are.
You know what's sad? I actually kinda expected this from you! I hate to see that I was right about how much of a racist bitch you could be."
Lance paused to exhale, desperately trying to calm himself down. His accent was coming out a lot more now.
"You know people like you literally drive people to suicide on earth."

"He is related to killers! He had the same aggression and violence as they do! He's a danger!"

"That's your logic!? If we all lived by that logic I wouldn't be able to stand Pidge or like half my family!? People don't chose their race. It's not something that's anyone's fault. You need to get other that. What do you think we're going to do after we beat Zarkon?! Just kill all the Galra!? GROW UP! We have to be able to work with them, especially now that we've met the blades. So get over your pettiness! This isn't a game! And if any of you agree with her then you don't deserve to be Paladins."
By the end Lance was absolutely seething and stormed out of the room before he broke something.

He rushed to his room to find Keith kneeling on the floor in his room clutching his jacket desperately to his chest, sobbing.
Lance didn't hesitate to drop to the floor and pull Keith towards him.

They sat there with Keith sobbing into Lance again and Lance rubbing his back.
"Hey... it's okay. We've made sure Allura lets you stay. You don't have to leave and the rest of the team agree. You've more than earned your place here."

Keith looked up to him with his red, puffy eyes, tear stained cheeks and wet, long eyelashes.
He was about to say something when they were interrupted by a knocking at the door.
"Lance? Open up we need to talk."
Shiro.

Lance mentally prepared himself for the scolding and stood up.
He offered Keith a hand and pulled him up and then moved to open the door.

It swooshed open to reveal Shiro and Pidge. Pidge waved at the two of them smiling at Keith.
"I think we'll need some more supplies so I'm sending you three to a nearby planet. Hopefully you can cool off a bit when you get there."
Pidge groaned, "Was that really necessary? It's not even funny." Shiro just shrugged before nodding to Keith and walking off.

Lance raised an eyebrow before glancing at Keith. Keith just sighed still keeping himself as small as possible, "Which... lion are we going in?"

"Green." Pidge chirped back, "I'll meet you in the hangar. You'll need your armor so I'll leave you two in peace," She blew a mock kiss to them and smirked before turning and running down the hall yelling, "Later lovebirds!"