Guys I'm so glad you liked the last chapter. I was mostly writing it for myself as opposed to trying to entertain so I was admittedly kind of scared to post it. Sorry I used a dead meme to title it. This one won't be as horrible.

I have. So many ideas for this chapter, I hope I can fit them all in. After writing the last chapter I couldn't stop thinking about what to do next.

WARNING: This chapter has minor langst

EDIT: I just wrote 1,800 words of this chapter and it got DELETED and now I'm down to 630 words. It was so good so now I'm really upset about that. I'm gonna try to rewrite it better than before because it was a little choppy but y'know it kinda sucks. I had been writing for a couple hours and for all of that to just disappear.. kinda not the move. Oh well, what's done is done.

Anywho here's the story. Hope you enjoy :)

Knock knock knock.

Shiro was in the middle of doing push-ups when he heard three knocks at his door. He wondered who it was for a second before hearing a wary, "Shiro? Are you awake?"

Of course he was awake. It was only 7:30pm. Shiro could tell the voice was Lance's but it lacked the confidence he usually had. Sounds like Shiro was about to have a serious conversation with Loverboy Lance.

Most of the team was doing their chores to help out around the castle. Shiro had finished cleaning the dishes early and Lance drew the shortest stick so he didn't have to do anything tonight.

"Yeah, come on in," The black paladin replied as he stood up. The automatic door slid open with a woosh and there stood Lance. He had bags under his eyes and his posture was...not the besr. He looked almost defeated. Exhausted.

"Can i talk to you for a sec... about Keith?" Lance asked.

"Yes of course, what's up?"

The door closed as Lance took a few steps into the room and paused. He couldn't gather up enough strength to look Shiro in the eye. Instead, his gaze stayed glued to the floor. The boy stood for a while, not saying anything. Shiro assumed he was just thinking, and right he was.

Lance breathed in, "I don't think I like Allura," he spoke softly out of fear of anyone overhearing, "I used to like her a lot but this morning everything felt different. I can't explain it, really, but when I flirted with her it felt forced."

Shiro listened carefully. When he realized Lance was done talking he spoke up, "Crushes don't last long. I'm surprised you've been infatuated with Allura for as long as you have."

Lance didn't really seem happy with that answer but he nodded and gave the black paladin a small half-smile. There were a few moments of silence before Lance suddenly blurted, "how did you know?"

"Know what?"

"I don't know... that you didn't like girls...?" his voice trailed off by the end and he turned his head the other way. His face felt unusually hot. For some reason Lance's teeth began to chatter and he forced his jaw shut to stop it. This conversation is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be he thought to himself.

Shiro smiled knowingly and placed his non-robot hand on Lance's shoulder. The boy looked up and met Shiro's eyes and he saw just how frightened Lance looked.

"When you experience love that's more than surface deep, you'll know. It feels different to truly love someone. When they're around you get a knot in your stomach. Their presence feels safe and warm. They make you happy just by being there."

"Okay but I felt that for Allura," Lance replied. He looked visibly annoyed. Not at Shiro, but at how confusing this whole thing was, "and now..." he stopped.

"Now...?"

"I don't really feel that anymore," Lance looked back at the ground. The boy's confessions felt strange. Like he was breaking down his own walls and then building them back up again. It felt less like he didn't trust Shiro and more like he didn't want to admit that what he was feeling actually existed.

Shiro decided to go back to the question Lance asked originally, "do you think you might like guys?"

The question took Lance off guard. His heart stopped for a second and his breath hitched. He could feel his stomach twist into a knot and he didn't know why. It was just a question, no biggie. So why did it scare him so much? The boy realized he hadn't said anything in a while and began to panic, "what? No! I was just...wondering?"

Shiro raised an eyebrow, "really? It's okay if you do."

"Pssshhhtt," Lance crossed his arms, "Yeah right."

Then Lance's expression fell. His arms dropped to his sides and he stood still, almost like a mannequin, "that's a dumb question," he said softly. It was a complete contrast from the loud confidence Shiro was used to from the boy.

"Lance," the boy met Shiro's eyes at the mention of his name, "pretend I'm the bathroom mirror and you're just ranting to yourself. No one else is here. Say whatever's on your mind even if it doesn't make any sense," Lance nodded in understanding and stood there, trying to put his thoughts into words.

"Remember that fight Keith and I got into last week?" Shiro nodded, "I learned something about Keith that no one else knows and I've been following him around ever since then to make sure he doesn't mess up and say anything. I was only doing to help - that's how it was at first - but then I realized I like being around him. We fight all the time because we're the exact opposite, but I don't mind it too much anymore. He's super closed off but cares in his own angry way, he's completely oblivious but incredibly smart at the same time. I don't know how but when I'm with him our personalities clash so much it's like they complete each other. When I'm not around him, I want to be around him," he paused and Shiro noticed the silly grin on Lance's face, "i want to be his best friend."

Shiro cocked an eyebrow, "best friend?"

Lance was taken aback by the questioning tone. He stepped away and his eyebrows furrowed, "yeah, duh! Why else would i feel that way?" Then the unexpected happened. His eyes began to burn and turn a pinkish color. He felt a tear drip from his left eye, then one from each eye. The boy immediately tried wiping it away with the sleeve of his jacket. When he was done there was a patch of dark green where the jacket had absorbed his tears.

The room was completely silent aside from a few small sniffles from Lance. Shiro didn't want to pry, he obviously wasn't ready to have this talk yet. Instead, he gave a friendly smile and told a story, "did you know that, back at the Garrison, I used to leave these letters for Adam? They weren't anything special. All they said were silly things like "nice glasses" and "I like your haircut" but it worked. I didn't tell him those letters were from me until a staff meeting exactly two years before the Kerberos mission. That was the first time I'd ever spoken to him. He asked me to get coffee. I said I would love to." Lance smiled. It was a sweet story. Then, out of nowhere, his posture shifted completely. He stood up straight and there was a slight glint of determination. He suddenly looked frantic to leave.

"Thank you, Shiro," he smiled and hugged his idol, "I needed that."

Then he turned and ran out of the room, his mood completely different from before. Shiro chuckled and called out to him, "come back if you need anything else!"

Lance burst into his room and threw his clothes all over the place in search of something. He threw a pair of blue jeans to the side and found what he was looking for under his bed: a blue wax candle. The whole team was given these by the queen of a planet they saved from the Galra. He then grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil from his bedside table and began to write. He usually saved the paper to write messages back home but since there was somehow no intergalactic post office yet, he thought it couldn't hurt to use a piece on a letter to someone else.

He spent a few minutes thinking about what he was going to say. He wanted it to be short a sweet, like what Shiro had written for Adam. He sat for a while tapping his pencil to the paper when inspiration struck. He wrote his short letter on the paper and folded it hamburger-style.

Now for the wax stamp.

The boy placed the candle on the paper exactly where he wanted to seal it. He then grabbed his bayard, aimed and fired. Three scorch marks on the floor and six pieces of paper later he had a perfect little blob of wax holding the paper together. He slipped his armor's gloves on and mashed a little heart into the glob of wax. It was complete.

Keith was the only one still doing chores. You see, he drew the longest stick so he had to clean the castle. He was almost done. All that was left was a small patch of some Altean cupcake Coran tried making earlier that day. The substance was red and simultaneously had the consistency of bread and gum...somehow.

The red paladin scrubbed at the same spot profusely to no avail. He had met his match. It was going to take a little more than a rag to get rid of this spot.

He put the rag in the sink and turned on the hot water. He twisted it to get the excess out and turned back around to look at the spot, "any last words?"

"..."

"That's what I thought," he put the damp rag to the spot, scrubbed for 30 seconds and lifted it up. Nothing came off. He put it down and scrubbed it a little harder this time. Once again, nothing came off.

"Playing hard to clean, huh? Well, two can play at that game," Keith said and made his way towards the cabinet. He opened it and found a spray bottle labeled, "Stain-B-Gone" he smirked maliciously, "perfect."

Keith walked back to the spot with the spray bottle in his dominant hand. He held it up to the stain and put his finger on the trigger, "I'm going to give you one last chance to go away."

"..."

"Don't think I won't shoot."

"..."

"Alright you asked for i-"

"Hey, Keith?"

"AAAAA!" Keith jumped and turned around, hiding the stain on the counter behind his back. In his panic he dropped the Stain-B-Gone. His hands held onto the counter for dear life as his legs buckled from under him. A familiar tan face peaked into the kitchen. Lance.

Keith took a deep breath and tried to regain his composure. He forced a scowl onto his face, "what do you want, Lance?"

Lance ignored the question and entered the room with one hand behind his back, "are you okay?"

An unusual question, "yeah...why?" Keith asked and Lance's next move made his breath stop and his heartbeat picked up. They boy gently touched his cheek and rubbed his thumb against it a few times.

"You've got a little spot here," Lance said, focusing on the patch of skin his thumb was stroking.

Keith was frozen for a couple seconds. Why was Lance doing this? Yeah, he was frustrated so he wasn't surprised to hear that his skin had gone a little Galra but why was Lance touching his face? Why did he like it? Wait. No. The boy flushed and put his hand in the place of Lance's, successfully slapping the boy's off of his face.

"Thanks," was all he said before turning around and getting back to work. He sprayed the stain on the counter with a smile and watched as his cloth absorbed every last bit, "I win," he said gruesomely. Lance coughed from behind him and his expression turned back to one of annoyance, "what?"

Lance took a deep breath and he began playing with the piece of paper he had behind his back. Then, all of a sudden, his expression became serious, "I was talking to Shiro about...things...and he told me I should," he looked up to meet Keith's eyes. They were a striking shade of violet, "have your eyes always been purple or is that part of something I should be looking out for?"

Keith raised an eyebrow, "they've always been this color. You haven't noticed that?" he crossed his legs and arms and leaned up against the counter. A playful smile made its way onto his face.

The blue paladin couldn't help but stare. He had never seen purple eyes before. They were a very dark shade of purple - almost black - but boy were they stunning. He could look into Keith's eyes forever. Too bad he only had a few seconds before he felt very uncomfortable. He smiles sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck, "oh I guess I haven't."

"Hm... so what did Shiro tell you to do?"

"Oh yeah! He, uh..." Lance trailed off. He was going to give Keith the card in person but now he was thinking it'd be better to just leave it in the room like Shiro had.

Keith nodded in anticipation, waiting anxiously to hear what Shiro had said. Lance knew he couldn't stall forever, "he said your haircut is stupid!" Lance blurted and ran out of the room.

"Real mature, Lance!" Keith called back down the hall. The boy sighed and began putting the cleaning supplies back on the shelves.

That night Keith came into his room and found a little card sealed closed with a little blue wax heart.

Strange.

The blue wax was undoubtedly Lance. The only wax any of the paladins owned was from their little color-coded candles and Allura and Coran didn't even know what wax was until they saved that planet. He opened the letter and read it.

Dear Keith.
Meet me at the loading docs, I need to talk to you about you dumb secret.
PS your hair looks stupid and I DON'T think about it EVER AT ALL
Yours truly,
Lance

How strange.

A/N: Oooo how fun! This chapter is twice as long as usual!

Sorry this chapter didn't quite turn out how I had originally intended. I didn't feel like rewriting all of those scenes so they're a lot less...emotional? Descriptive? Idk I'm sorry it isn't as good as I wanted it to be. I hope you enjoyed anyways. I really wanted Lance to confide in Shiro about maybe liking Keith in the show but it never happened so I'm putting it in here. Expect more Shiro helping Lance scenes in the future.

Also quick question: do you guys like more serious chapters like this or goofier ones like the third chapter? I was gonna make the next one more on the serious side but I could definitely add some jokes in here and there if that's what you want.

I hope you guys enjoyed reading and I'll see you all later this week :) bye!