Last chapter, everyone! This is my personal favorite, so I kept it for the end. No warnings this time, just fluff and fun!

To all the Klance lovers out there – this was written as platonic, but I suppose it can also be read as shippy; whatever you choose.

"Lance, we've been waiting for you for nearly fifteen dobashes," Keith called through the closed door to Lance's room. "You better get your ass to the training deck, or I'll tell Shiro to drag you there by force." Honestly, he didn't understand why Shiro had sent him of all people to fetch Lance after the blue paladin had failed to show up for their morning training.

"Tell Hunk to go," Keith said automatically once Shiro ordered him to go to Lance's room and check on him.

Shiro raised an eyebrow. "But I asked you. Is there a problem with that?"

Keith blushed deeply. "N-no. I'll go." He turned on his heels and stomped out of the training deck, trying his best to ignore Pidge and Hunk's giggles.

Lance had probably overslept or was busy smearing his face with one of those disgusting lotions he stored in his room. Keith really didn't have the energy to deal with it so early in the morning, but Shiro had asked and he could never say no to Shiro. So, there he was.

He knocked on the door again. "Don't make me kick this thing open."

"I-I'll be down in a minute!" Lance's voice rang from inside, at least an octave higher than normal.

Keith frowned. "Are you okay in there?"

"I said I'm fine! Just give me a minute! Or maybe two – ah, Quiznak, not again!"

Okay, now Keith started to get suspicious. "Lance, what the hell is going on?" he demanded.

"Nothing! Everything's fine! I've got this under control, I swear!" Lance rambled, still in this weirdly high-pitched voice.

Having enough experience with things that happened right after Lance used the words "under control", Keith hit the opening button of the sliding door and burst into the room, ready to face whatever calamity the blue paladin has brought upon himself this time.

To his utter surprise, the room looked quite normal. A bit messier than usual – Lance had always had a good sense of order and hygiene, strangely enough – but nothing that raised any immediate suspicion. Lance himself was sitting on the edge of his bed, still wearing his pajamas. He was clutching a small bottle in his fist and stared at Keith through very red, very swollen eyes, looking rather agitated.

Keith inhaled and exhaled slowly. "Okaaaay. This place doesn't look like a war zone and you're more or less in one piece, for all I can see, so why the hell are you not wearing your armor?"

Lance pursed his lips. "I'm having a bit of a situation here."

"And what would that situation be, exactly?"

"Nothing you can help with!"

Keith clenched and unclenched his fists, trying his best not to scream. They were going to be here all morning at this rate. He nodded towards the bottle in Lance's hand. "Does it have anything to do with this thing?"

Lance threw his head backwards and groaned. "Fine! I can't put this in on my own, okay?! I'm trying, but I keep missing every time! Happy now?!"

Keith just stared at him for a few moments, not sure how to convey that he had no idea what Lance was talking about. He cleared his throat. "Can't put what in?"

Lance rolled his ping-pong sized eyes and shook the bottle in front of Keith's face. "Those stupid eye drops Coran gave me, duh!"

Oh, that. Lance has been walking around with an eye infection since yesterday, right after they returned from a mission on a tropical planet. After determining the infection wasn't anything fatal, Coran gave Lance a bottle of Altean eye drops and ordered him to apply them into his eyes twice a day. Lance protested, claiming that he could hop in a pod instead and get his eyes healed up in less than a varga, but Coran only waved a finger in response and said he couldn't send the paladins to the pods for every little thing.

"Cryofreeze is not something to play with!" he rumbled. "Those drops are the most efficient eye medicine we have in the castle; they shall clear out the infection in no more than a quintent! So you better quit that whining of yours and go put them in!"

"Are you telling me," Keith said wearily, "you haven't managed to use these drops since yesterday?"

Lance flinched in his place, which was all the answer Keith needed. He released a snort of laughter, unable to stop himself.

Lance shot him a glare. "That's not funny!"

"It actually kind of is," Keith said, shoulders shaking. "Seriously, what's so hard about this? You just place the dropper above your eye and squeeze. You're a sniper, right? You're supposed to have a good aim."

"It's different when I have to aim at myself," Lance hissed. "I just – I don't like things getting too close to my eyes, okay? It freaks me out. Like, I'm really lucky to have a 20/20 vision because I'd never be able to handle contact lenses."

Well, that actually made a lot of sense, even though Keith still found the whole situation quite hilarious. He turned his back to Lance. "Well, I don't think I can help you," he said. "So you better find a solution and come to deck before I tell everyone about your eye phobia."

"Wait!" Lance jumped and caught Keith's shoulder. "You have to help me, man! I can't let my beautiful eyes stay infected forever!"

Keith shook his grip off. "What exactly do you want me to do?"

Lance took Keith's hand and placed the bottle in it. "Put those in for me. It's only one drop for each eye."

Oh, no. Hell no. Keith was happy to help a friend in need every now and then, but this was way out of line. Nope. Not happening.

As if reading his thoughts, Lance said, "Hey, you help Shiro patch himself up after training or battles sometimes, right? How is that different?"

Well, it was different. Shiro was like a brother to Keith; they had known each other for years and have been through so much together. Lance, on the other hand… well, he wasn't exactly a stranger, but they weren't the closest friends either. Keith has always taken a long time to open up to people - especially people like Lance, who always had to make such a big deal of everything. One time Keith asked him for some shampoo after his ran out and Lance nearly hyperventilated with excitement, rambling about Keith finally taking care of his ugly mullet for more than half a varga until Keith gave up and washed his hair with soap (which had more or less the same effect, honestly, but that didn't stop Lance from giving him the stink eye all dinner).

Keith crossed his arms. "Why don't you ask someone else to do it for you?"

Lance deflated a bit. "Well, Allura and Coran are busy upgrading the castle's defense systems this morning, I don't want to bother them."

"How about the other paladins?"

Lance raised three fingers and started to fold them in a count down. "Hunk always gets nervous in these situations, so his hands will probably shake too much; Shiro can probably do it without blinking, but he might break the bottle if he presses too hard with his Galra hand; and Pidge will probably insist on documenting this for future blackmail and I really don't want to mess with her." He looked back at Keith, reddish eyes begging. "Please, Keith. I know you're not entirely comfortable with this, but I swear I wouldn't have asked if I hadn't needed your help for real. Come on, I'll owe you one."

Keith sighed. Damn Lance and his puppy eyes (which were even more puppy-like now, all puffy and moist as if he was going to burst into tears). His fist tightened around the bottle. "Alright, let's get this over with. Sit down and tilt your head back."

Lance grinned brightly (and no, Keith most certainly did not feel all warm inside because of that). "Yes sir," he saluted and did as he was told.

Keith placed his left thumb under Lance's chin to keep it in place while holding the bottle with his right hand. "Let's start with your right eye. Keep it wide open," he ordered. "Can you pull your eyelid down for me?"

Lance placed two fingers about an inch below his right eye and pulled, creating a small pocket between his lower eyelid and eyeball.

"Alright," Keith said, making sure the dropper was placed exactly above Lance's lower eyelid. "One, two, thr – "

But before he even managed to say "three" Lance squeezed his eyes shut, and the drop landed on his cheek and slid down his face uselessly.

"Lance!" Keith snapped. "Come on! The whole point is not to close your eyes!"

"Sorry, sorry!" Lance waved his hands frantically. "I just wasn't ready, that's all! Let's try one more time, I promise I won't mess it up!"

Keith huffed out an exasperated breath and grabbed Lance's chin once more, aiming for the same spot. But just as he squeezed the bottle Lance closed his eyes againand jerked his head backwards, making the drop land on his upper lip this time.

Keith threw his arms in the air. "Okay, I can't do this. I give up."

"Well, I'm sorry!" Lance lashed out. "I told you I freak out every time someone gets close to my eyes!"

"Then what do you want me to do, knock you unconscious?!" Keith was more than tempted to do so at this point; just one clear punch to the nape of Lance's neck and he would be completely compliant…

Lance scrambled backwards until his back met the wall. "Oh, no way. You're going to go all Galra on me and give me a concussion."

Keith pinched the bridge of his nose with his free hand. What the hell was he doing? He was obviously wasting his time when he could be training and kicking some bot's ass instead. He should have never agreed to help Lance in the first place, because honestly, when has this guy ever helped him with something, huh? All he ever did was telling lame jokes and challenging Keith to pointless fights and making fun of his hair and –

An idea suddenly struck Keith's mind and he froze for a second, then took a deep breath and climbed on the bed, hovering over Lance who was still leaning against the wall. "Fine, let's try this one more time," he said calmly. "I'm going to need your help with something after this anyway, since you said you'd owe me one."

Lance tilted his head in confusion. "Really? What is it?"

Keith shrugged. "I was thinking of cutting my hair, but it's hard to do it on my own."

Lance's eyes widened like a pair of plates. "You what – "

And that was when Keith used his lightning-quick instincts to place the bottle right above Lance's right eye and squeeze, the drop landing precisely at the center of his eyelid.

Lance yelped, and Keith wasted no time tossing the bottle aside and catching Lance's right eyebrow and lower eyelid between his fingers, pressing them together to force his eye shut. "Gotcha," he panted.

"What the cheese, Keith?!" Lance shrieked, squirming and kicking in all directions, but Keith straddled his hips and pinned him down to the bed. "You – you tricked me!"

"I got the drop in your eye," Keith said, smirking triumphantly. "I regret nothing."

"You monster," Lance whined. "Let go of me!"

"In a few seconds," Keith said. "We need to make sure your eye absorbs as much of the drop as possible."

"I have a funny taste in my mouth."

"Oh, cry me a river."

"Quit making eye-related jokes already!"

Keith snorted, then finally released Lance's head. Lance slowly blinked his right eye open, his expression is that of utter betrayal.

"I can't believe you lied just to give me eye drops," he said, pouting like an angry toddler. "I feel so defiled."

Keith rolled his eyes. "Well, it was the only way to get the damn thing in, so you should really thank me for that."

"So you're not going to cut your hair? I can still do it for you, you know, it'll look so much better than – "

"Besides, I wasn't entirely lying. I do mean to cut my hair, but I've already asked Allura for help, so it's none of your concern."

This time Lance's eyes widened so much they nearly popped out of their sockets. "You're going to have a haircut session with Allura? Well that's just unacceptable – eeeeeeeh!" he screeched as Keith instilled another drop at the center of his left eyelid. "Will you stop doing that?!"

"Relax, I'm done," Keith said and finally climbed off Lance's hips. "You are so easy to fool, it's pathetic. And keep this eye closed."

Lance sputtered furiously, but kept his left eye shut as ordered. Keith placed the bottle on the nightstand and rubbed his palms in content. "Good. Next time ask someone else to help you because I'm not doing that again. Now go get your armor, we've already wasted enough time."

Lance didn't move. "You're a heartless freak."

"And you're a big baby."

"I guess the last part was a lie too? Allura's not going to cut your hair?"

Keith thought about it for a moment, then decided he'd probably messed around with Lance enough for one day. "No, she's not. I like my hair the way it is, thank you very much."

Lance's shoulders slumped. "Well, I can't believe I'm saying this, but that's a relief." Then, his expression softened. "Thanks, Keith. I… I know I'm not always the easiest person to deal with, but you stayed and helped me nonetheless. I appreciate that. You… you're okay. You're not completely heartless."

Keith felt his ears heat up and glanced aside, not sure what to say. "Um, sure. Whatever. I-I'm glad I helped."

Lance grinned. "Best bonding moment ever, am I right?"

Keith bristled. "Shut up! I'm going back to training. You can either join us or stay here, I honestly couldn't care less!" and with that he stormed out of the room, followed by Lance's shrieking laughter.

How? How did Lance always get under his skin like that? Even when Keith was the one who'd tricked him and had the upper hand?

Well, it was kind of fun messing around like this. He didn't remember the last time he had such a joyful banter with someone; he had similar encounters back when he was a kid at the orphanage, but those were never in good spirits and never ended well, at least not for him.

Keith scoffed and shook his head. Well, at least he got Lance to owe him a favor. This will surely come in handy sometime in the future; an eye for an eye, right?

He stopped at once, staring at the wall in front of him in horror. Did... did he just make a Lance joke?

On a second thought, maybe it would be better not to spend so much time with the blue paladin.

I think this hardly counts as a sickfic, since Lance is not really sick here, but still, he had *some* sort of medical condition, so… I guess that's okay? Anyway, I had a lot of fun writing this. like I said, this was my favorite chapter and I hope you guys enjoyed it too!

I've never really headcanoned Keith as living in an orphanage (I actually don't have any headcanons about his pre-Garrison days, I'm waiting for the show to kindly explain this to us), but I thought it'd fit nicely in here, so I added it.

Also – I'm 100% Lance when it comes to foreign objects nearing my eyes XD I can't STAND it, I barely let my eye doctor check me without running away. That's why I'll never replace my glasses for contact lenses, or put an eyeliner, or anything of that sort. But I AM capable of giving myself eye drops (after a lot of failed attempts, of course), so I guess I'm doing better than Lance after all, haha!

Anyway – this was the last one-shot for this series! To everyone who'd reviewed or faved – thank you so much! Your kind feedback has really made me happy and confident in my writing. And I'll be even happier if you leave a comment one last time, too :)