JULANCE DAY 17: RED & BLUE
Contrary to popular belief, Lance has always been quick to forgive. He’s far too easy.
“Wait, how do we know you’re the real Keith and not his bigger, cooler, grizzled older brother?”
“I don’t have time for this, Lance!”
The words crash into him like a tsunami.
While some things never will return to normalcy, other things never change. In the most impossible of circumstances, Keith returned from his months away with a new, wise look. Because he’s older. Ancient.
Okay, maybe he’s aged somewhere between two to three years. Still, it’s another way Lance feels left behind, another difference to separate This Keith and His Keith in Lance’s mind.
His Keith respected Lance, at the end of their shared leadership. Before, Keith had proudly shared Lance’s ideas, always giving him credit. Their relationship had been a give and take, a delicate balance of support over strategy and diplomacy. He boosted Lance’s view to the scope of the universe.
This Keith? Brushes him aside instantly. I don’t have time for this, Lance, feels like such a cop out after all they’d shared under the blankets of night and the harsh LEDs of the training deck. More than a cop out; it’s a reminder to Lance of his place, in a similar vein to how “Shiro” treated him during their time apart. For months, Lance has been steeped in melancholy, drifting room to room listlessly as his teammates ignored his subtle warnings about “Shiro.” He’s been a ghost more than a man.
And you know what? Lance is fucking over it.
He’s forgiven Shiro for vanishing and dying into the astral plane. He’s forgiven Pidge and Hunk for focusing on missions and engineering Lotor’s stupid, fancy ships. He’s forgiven Allura for abandoning Lance as soon as a familiar, meerkat-esque purple dickhead calls her name. At the end of the list, though, he simply can’t forgive Keith.
As Lance sat there with the team, purposely accepting blows from “Shiro” the others might have almost received, Keith was gone. He left them. If he’d stayed, maybe this all would have been sorted out sooner. Keith knew Shiro better than anyone. He would’ve seen the marks of a cheap copy. Instead, he fucked off right when their rhythm began to catch fire. This is Keith’s doing.
For him to sweep Lance away, after all that?
Lance feels his teeth grind into one another, his shoulders tighten, his temples pulsating at the memory.
Pidge catches him standing at the fringe of the room and wanders over, grabbing his hand and staring him dead in the eye.
“It’s fucked up,” she mutters, as if reading into his mind. “I’m sorry I didn’t back you up. Earth Colors?” Her eyes are pleading, but her feet betray her nerves, shifting weight awkwardly between them.
“It’s all good, Pidgey.” Lance squeezes her hand back and offers a small, placating smile. His signature move. She accepts it and moves back to where the team is debriefing, where they all sit around Shiro (now sporting all white hair) and Keith.
Hunk has already apologized to him, even if Lance waved him away. Allura guiltily casts glances at Lance intermittently— likely remembering how she ignored his worries with Lotor. Lance can’t bring himself to care about any of it. He’s already welcomed Shiro back, anyways.
All he sees when he stares at Keith is red. Fury, dancing across Lance’s shoulders, despite the smooth waters This Keith projects. Lance McClain might not be magically aged, but he’s done a hell of a lot of growing up with a gun in his hands and a problem at his front. He’s not scared of a real, big boy fight anymore.
“Kogane. Move.” The words snap into the joyful atmosphere, all eyes turned with shock on Lance. He’s tilting his head to the door, arms crossed over his chest, expression hard. Understanding dawns on Keith’s face. Unreadable, he rises from his chair, the sound of metal scraping echoing into the deafening silence.
Keith walks through the door Lance gestured to without even a sideways glance, movements cool and fluid. It only sets Lance further alight.
As always, Lance follows Keith out, refusing to acknowledge the team’s questioning looks after him.
