Okay so, chapter 5. Literally all of this is filler and base flooring to write the section where it's Shiro's thoughts and jazz. Aka: The beginning is preparation. XD

This chapter came into being because I learned the word obstreperous and wanted to use it... So I wrote the first sentence and my brain did the rest to connect it with this story in particular. Weird how stuff works out, huh? :/

((P.S. The reason why I'm starting to find it hard to write for this is because I feel that I'm going too slow and the fact that my love for Latte has dissipated. Not entirely of course, I can still get behind that ship. (In fact there is this really long fanfic I have planned out that will eventually have Lance x Matt in it.) But my inner Plance shipper reminds me that it is the first Lance involved ship I rooted for. And my Allurance shipper ass has been lowkey since season 1 and it has been rejoicing for a while. ^^ Got to love their relationship development in s3 and s4.))

Lance was obstreperous and that was a fact. He knew this, he knew he could be difficult at times and he knew as sure as all hell that he was loud. It was just in his nature. It was how he was raised. There were many people in his family, therefore it was always noisy and they had formed a habit of yelling across a room or two instead of walking over there and talking to one another.

So at the moment, it was quite ironic what was happening. Guess he was going to die like this. On this stupid planet that was doomed to begin with. Not that he would've voiced that to his team; that would just piss them off. Lance was going to die. Huh, don't think I've come to terms with that yet. So it was ironic. Despite being such a loud person, he couldn't yell out for help now. He was going to bleed out to death. "Ugh!" He hit his head back against the stone wall he was leaning against. One of gray in coloration, now with a sickly red spread over its surface. The scent of copper-no, iron hung to the air he breathed. He didn't want to think about it. Instead he steered his attention to other thoughts. Like, where was he again? He didn't remember. He was tired, drained, sleepy, anything. He closed his eyes as he felt tears forming. Shit, he still had so much to do, things to say. Why now, why like this-? Lance unwilling coughed blood that ran up his throat. It drizzled down his chin and he spat it onto the ground, marking up some color on a plain gray backdrop. Fuck! Why is everything gray around here?! It's so insipid to look at! I don't want to die looking at this. This is a horrible last sight to see. I...I refuse-!

"Lance!" Somebody in the distance called out his name, perfect timing. They just had to interrupt Lance's inner monologue. "Shit, where are you?" Footsteps accompanied the voice soon after. He could hear it. Still.

It was Keith.

Of course it was Keith, who else would it have been? Everyone else already found him near death before. First it was Shiro, next Pidge, then Hunk and Allura (that was one peculiar ice planet), then that time he saved Coran again. The old man had to drag his unconscious ass back to a hijack pod to escape. That whole ordeal was cockamamie, that was for sure.

Now it looked like Keith's turn. Great.

Fucking communication links won't work, because you know, the universe loves him and always makes things go his way. "Over here." He coughed. His voice was dry and raspy. Oh, Jesus. Now the fear was kicking in.

"Lance?"

Get your ass over here mullet and find me, I refuse to die today.

"Lance!" Keith's vague body shape was forming in his sight, but that probably wasn't saying much. His vision was blurry as all hell at the moment. That definitely wasn't a good sign. Not a good one at all, must mean he's losing too much blood or that he's dehydrated. Could be both, the possibilities are endless. There are just so many ways to die.

"Lance, holy shit." Keith rasped out, eyes wide as he took in the bloody sight before him. Okay, there wasn't that much blood, but still. Lance was bleeding from a wound located somewhere on his head, and blood trickled down his chin and Keith couldn't locate why. It also seemed he was bleeding out on his right side. It looked like a gunshot grazed him. Oh God. Keith had always hated how human blood smelt. It was disgusting. No one wants to smell a heavy odor of iron of all things. The smell was just, well… miasma, like no.

"Yo." Lance guessed that Keith's facial expression was probably scrunched up.

"Guys." Keith spoke into his com, that for some reason still worked. Maybe when Lance hit his head his com link broke, it was quite plausible. "I found Lance, he's bleeding." Keith reached a hand out to remove Lance's helmet. The boy winces in the process making Keith shoot a quick, 'sorry'. "He has a head wound. Pidge, I need you to pick him up."

Lance groaned. He knew he had different injuries throughout his body, but he couldn't exactly pinpoint where they were at the moment. Damn, he was still tired. He didn't want to use his voice. The inside of his head was a slow trim of pain swirling around. He was sore everywhere and he was vaguely aware of the fact his bayard was sprawled on the floor next to him. Its form was in its basic shape. His grip on it was weak and it would fall to the ground if he were to stand up.

He looked up. Was Keith talking to him? Why couldn't he hear him now? Was his lips moving? Damn, his vision was getting real blurry at the moment. Not a good sign, but then again; he best sign he's had in the last few hours was the head of an animal, and Keith standing in front of him.

Keith held tightly into his bayard. The weight wasn't as light as air, but it wasn't entirely heavy either. It was just...grounding enough for him to remember he had a grip on it. His eyes wander down to Lance's body slouched against the wall. "Lance, hey. Lance!" He called out. There was no response. He wouldn't answer. Lance had a far off look, before his face scrunched up and he turned to look at each side. It seemed he was looking for something. "Lance I'm right here." He crouched down to his level, examining him for any other visible wounds. Can't he tell that I'm right in front of him? The other man whimpered and Keith felt his heart break. "Lance?" Hesitantly he placed a gentle hand on the boy's shoulder. Lance visibly flinches but doesn't do anything else besides stare off into the distance behind him. He removed his hand and stood up. Lance's eyes followed him, at least there was that. Why isn't he replying to me anymore? "Lance, say something." He wasn't angry per se, just concerned. Could he not talk anymore? Was his throat damaged? Oh God, what if something hit his throat? That'll cause bruising, which is the bleeding of veins under the skin, which will slow things up, which won't allow him to breathe— "You better not die on me!" Keith grinds out. He let his bayard dissipate into his leg armor and tried to slowly pick him up.

Keith flinches at the quite but noticeable noises and gasps of pain that come from the blue paladin. Shit that isn't good. The thought presented itself by the time he got him to stand up. Of course Keith could feel Lance using him heavily as a clutch. Why is it always Lance that needs to be thrown into a pod? Why does he always end up getting seriously hurt? He's going to give me a heart attack one day. Keith mused. This just...this just always happens. Lance is always the one to get hurt. Whether or not it was because Lance wasn't good with hand-to-hand-combat or just because he's plan unlucky; he was usually the one who got mortally wounded and needed to be thrown into a pod. Constantly. It was a bit worrisome.

Numbskull.

-Time Skip-

"Hey Keith you there?"

Keith nearly jumps at the sound of his com coming to life. Instead he shook a bit, ripping a pained moan from the man next to him. He winces and apologizes, but it falls upon deaf ears and the open air around him. He was going to say something else to cue Pidge that he heard her and was there. However-

"I have your location pinpointed. Stay there with Lance. Shiro's going to haul Red back to the castle."

He almost nodded, but he caught himself and 'hmm-hum' alternatively. "What about Blue?"

"Hunk's going to take care of that."

Keith grunted again as a response. He didn't really have much of a reply anyway. That information was valid, accurate hopefully, and straight forward. He didn't have any questions. He just had one job and one job only.

Keep Lance safe. He'll be damned if he lets his friend die.

Friend.

That's a weird word. It's a word that gets thrown and tossed around quite a lot on Earth. Hell, even around here, in space with all these different type of aliens and cultures. That word was still being misused, given out a bit too heedlessly. Lance is his friend. They certainly have gotten along much better than the beginning of this whole ordeal. Although...he did give him a bloody nose a while back... But Keith had reasons. Sometimes he lashed out, but everybody does that! Maybe not in the same way, but still...

The word friend was almost troublesome to Keith. Well, only when attached to Lance it was. You see, somewhere within himself, Keith could feel that a part of him didn't sit well with that word being used...

Enough of that though. None of it will matter if the boy lying on the ground with his head on Keith's lap stops his breathing. He better not stop, he just couldn't. "That a lot of blood." He mumbled as he watched the ugly red liquid flake and lose color over white and blue armor. It looked fake to him; it certainly didn't feel real, but it was. Sadly.

He suddenly wasn't all that of red. It didn't paint a very nice picture in front of him.

"Keith?"

Holy shit, he woke up. Keith took a sharp intake of air and tried to mentally prepare himself. He tried to gently push back some of Lance's hair. It didn't do much. There was too much flaked blood entangled in it. Man, how long has it been since he found him like this? Keith found himself cursing under his breath as he thought up a response, something to say. Anything to say. Anything would do at this point. "You're still alive?" Well that came out terribly, it almost sounded like a question!

-Time Skip cuz I keep staring at this and writing only to delete + it's late-

Pidge rubbed her eyes as she stared at the reflective glass surface of a healing pod. Keith could see her do the adorable action from the corner of his eye. He had his arms crossed like usual, however, he was sitting down on the floor with Hunk and Pidge. The three of them were waiting for Lance to come out of the pod. The others had been in the 'floor pile', but Matt said he was tired and went to bed for a nap (or at least that's what Keith assumed), Slav just straight up got kicked out (In a nice-ish way, what? The guy's annoying. You gotta admit.), Allura had duties to attend to, as did Shiro, and Coran was currently completing some checkups on the ship. It did take a beating on that other planet. The older man had stated earlier that he would come back here as soon as he was done. What a nice thought. What wasn't nice was the sight before him.

Pidge stretched out her arms. He could hear the 'pops' and 'cracks' that accompanied it. She then leaned into him and pulled one of the blankets over herself. At least they had a bunch of blankets and pillows with them. Camping out on the cold, unforgiving, metal floors of the castle hurts. Good thing there's so many goddamn spare rooms in this castle-ship-thing. There were many places to 'borrow' blankets and pillows from. Quite time consuming to hunt for though.

Keith heard the soft breathing from the bigger man besides him, Hunk had fallen asleep earlier and Pidge was attempting to use Keith as a pillow. Good heaven knows why. Keith wasn't much of a pillow. Hell, there was like, 8 extra pillows for her to choose from. What is she doing?

...waiting...

Anticipating something to happen, maybe?

This was taking an eternity...

Shiro watched from the opened doorway at the pile of humans. Well, 3 humans anyway. Who knows when they fell asleep? All he knows is that they have been there for vargas, now they were all cuddled up and sleeping. It was almost cute. No, it was cute. Shiro had to admit, among other things. He felt the need to take a picture of it, however he didn't own a device in which he could do that. He made a mental note to ask Pidge for something like that later.

Shiro narrowed his eyes. They were waiting for Lance to pop out of the cryopod and as far as he was concerned, that wouldn't be until another few vargas. He sighed. There was no use standing over here like a creep. He might as well just go to his room and lie down for a bit. That sounds like a great idea actually.

He pushes off of the doorway and makes way back down the hall to where his room is located. The door slides open in front of him and he hits the panel to 'lock room' after it closes and at the very least slipping off his jacket and shoes. With them aside he gets into bed. The sheets are unsatisfying, but they get better the longer you have them on or at least that is what they felt like to him. He didn't care if he was wrong, he'll do his damndest to pretend it was. It was just better this way.

He shifted in his bed, he had time, and there was time to do this. He could do this if he wanted to and he is. This is fine. It's totally fine. He's just going to bed early to be alone with his thoughts.

His thoughts.

Shiro closed his eyes and leaned back into the pillow. He's noticed things and he's been wanting to talk about them for a while now. He just...didn't find the right time and once he finally did, a mission came up. What he noticed was something that he almost didn't catch. Once he did though, he watched carefully to confirm his suspicion.

Lance has been avoiding Matt.

Matt is Shiro best-fucking-friend. They may have not seen each other in a while, but the bond was still there, however weaken by time. At least it still existed. To both their credit there was that. Matt barely talked to anyone when he was first rescued. He would at least talk to Pidge or him at first and even there he had to be prompted first. It wasn't...it wasn't a state he wanted to see him in. He's gotten better since. The others are less awkward around him and Matt even told him not to long ago that he likes Hunk's company. Shiro knew he would, Hunk's a nice guy. Now, these are things that were blatant, something in plain sight. However the situation he wanted to talk about was a bit more subtle. It was something he couldn't warp his head around.

Why was Lance avoiding Matt?

It definitely wasn't the other way around, if anything, he's noticed how Matt will watch Lance or even tense up at his presence.

Shiro had concluded not too long ago that it was one of two things.

One, Lance or Matt did something to one another and now they have a strained relationship, however nonexistent it was beforehand. Or two, that Lance has been avoiding Matt because he's upset about how he can't see his family at all, but Pidge gets her brother back. Matt only acts the way he does because the boy probably already thought the other hated him or something.

While he had to admit he didn't quite know how to feel about the first one (it felt like something they must deal with on their own, he could only give them a push), the latter made his blood boil though. He couldn't help it. Would he understand why Lance felt that way? Yes, but that didn't justify him alienating Matt. He wanted to talk to him about it. Even if Shiro was wrong in both regards. At least he could talk it out and learn what the hell is actually going on.

But he would have to wait, for now.

There is a lot of waiting in this fanfic. XD I planned for Shiro to be angrier (and for this chapter to be longer) but it didn't turn out that way. It's fine though. This chapter isn't as bad as I thought it would be. That's good. :)

Sorry that this chapter took me a bit to crank out. I don't think that I will be posting another chapter in a while. My brother is moving all the way to San Francisco. :( I don't think I'll do a thing for this that quick. Or maybe not. I write for many reasons. One of them being when I'm stressed out. So who knows? Again, not me. :(

Honestly this story has so many grammar mistakes and the like, but I'm so lazy to fix them. Maybe one day. Too many sites I would have to edit from. X(

Edit 4/20/2019: Eyyyy, it took me two days but I finally finished editing the mistakes out of here and fixed some of the grammar mistake. I don't know how to fix some of them. Burning this fic, probably.