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Keith swayed, he touched his head, light headed and stomach tight. He stared at the ground and mumbled, "End training sequence," so quietly he heard the droid powering up again to strike and he tried to say it more clearly, but he was slurring still and got hit. Groaning, he sat up and slur-yelled, "End training sequence!"
"Well that was pathetic."
Lance walked over to Keith, who groaned softly. He didn't have the energy to be surprised Lance was there, let alone fight with him. "Not now, Lance," he mumbled, standing slowly. "How long have you been doing this?" Lance asked, helping him up as he was halfway stood. Keith shrugged. "About an hour, okay? I'm just... tired," he wasn't lying but, he didn't want to explain. Lance stared, expression cryptic.
"What's wrong with you?" he asked flatly. Keith glared." What's wrong with you?" he grumbled without his usual fight. He just didn't have then energy for this. Keith hadn't eaten in a week? He wasn't quite sure. Since Shiro disappeared Keith found he couldn't stomach more then a few bites and... fell back on old habits. He distantly felt anger at himself. Keith had thought he was over this little problem.
Lance stared at him. "When did you last have water?" Keith shrugged and said truthfully, "Between sequences? Not long ago." "And food goo? When was the last time you ate?" Keith froze. He didn't think the others had noticed. "What?" he asked stupidly. Lance shook his head. "Has this happened before? Like... last time?" he asked.
Keith knew Lance was fairly sensitive to other people's needs. He just figured it was a friends-only thing. Keith shrugged, "Why do you care? You don't have to do this because I'm supposedly the leader now..." He trailed off. No one had agreed with Shiro's choice, including Keith. Lance scoffed. "You're my teammate, not my leader. And we gotta... look out for each other," he mumbled. Keith knew later he'd have feelings about this but all he could feel now was trepidation at the idea that Lance might force food on him.
"Come on," Lance said, taking Keith's elbow. "How dizzy are you, dummy?" he asked, not looking at him. Keith stared in bewildered silence. "Fine, don't talk, I'm still gonna help you," Lance mumbled. "Thank you," whispered Keith. Lance turned away so they couldn't see each other's faces. "It's for the team, not you," he insisted, but they both knew it wasn't true. Lance was too nice.
Taking Keith to his bedroom, Lance sat him down. "Lay down if you gotta, I'm gonna come back," he said, leaving while still avoiding Keith's eyes. Keith thought to himself, laying down actually sounded pretty good. He lay on his side and felt immediately less light headed. Huh. After about fifteen minutes, Lance returned with water, a bowl of alien cereal and what Hunk said was similar to a passion fruit smoothie. Keith had never tried passionfruit, so he took his word for it. Lance sat on the edge of the bed, handing Keith the water. "Drink." he ordered. Keith took it and hesitantly did as he was told.
"How did you notice?" he asked after a moment of awkward silence. Lance looked him in the eye finally. "You only show up to breakfast and take like two bites. It's hard not to miss," he said. Keith furrowed his brow. "Everyone knows?" he asked quietly. Lance shook his head. Not the breakfast thing. I think people think you're eating alone, to be honest," he supplied. Keith was quiet, embarrassed at being caught. "You were right," he said awkwardly. Lance looked puzzled at him. Keith sighed, sitting up a bit. "I had this... habit when Shiro was announced dead," he said and Lance bit his lip. "Oh." He looked at Keith and mumbled an apology. Keith shrugged. "So if I feel sick it's my fault," he said quietly.
"No it isn't," Lance said, quietly but clearly in the silent room. "This is an addiction, it never really goes away." Keith stared and Lance sighed. "I used to do it too, before working out. I had to be the prettiest, you know? If I couldn't be the best at anything, I could at least be pretty," he explained. Keith watched him speak, surprised at his honestly and the fact he did this before. "You're talented though," Keith said without thinking. Lance whipped around to look at him. "What?" he said, sounding disbelieving. Keith took a breath, steadying himself for this bout of honestly. "I said you're talented. And good looking, for the record. You're a really good pilot and... This stuff. You notice things. You listen to people, like really listen," he said, not quite looking at Lance. "I can't really relate to the attractive part, I'm not good looking like you, I do it because... I don't really know why..." Lance looked confused when Keith looked up. "Okay, one, if I had to guess, drepession and control issues, and two, you think you think you aren't good looking, like me?" Keith shrugged. Lance sputtered. "All the girls at the Garrison wanted you! You have," he gestured vaguely at Keith, "All this!"
Keith was confused. He had always been told his strengths were in his talent and... nothing else. He had a bad attitude and impulse problems and no one ever said he was good looking but apparently girls thought he was... what? Cute? The thought seemed silly. But both of them turned slightly pink. "Oh," was all Keith could think to say clutching his water. They had gotten really distracted from the problem, of course that was fine in Keith's mind. Keith was speechless though, and Lance coughed softly. "Do you want me to leave?" he asked. Keith was torn. He didn't want to be... clingy. But he wanted Lance to stay. "You can stay if you want..." he said very quietly. Lance nodded.
"So control issues, huh?" Lance said, leaning back, saying it casually as if talking about the weather. Keith laughed a little. "I guess. Why do you think that?" Lance shrugged. "It makes sense. We don't know how to find your, what, mentor-" "Brother," Keith said immediately, then immediately internally smacking himself. Lance looked at him. "You have different last names?" he asked, as of them being real brothers wasn't impossible. Keith shook his head. "We aren't really, I shouldn't have said-" Lance interrupted him though, "You can adopt him as your brother, you know." He was smiling a little, to Keith's surprise. He expected to be teased. "But, I don't even know if he..." Keith looked away, suddenly feeling very stressed and... choked up. Lance looked at him, hesitantly touching his arm. "I think he does. And I know we'll find him," he reassured him. "Being separated from your family is bad enough but your de facto brother who was with you this whole time..." he sounded sympathetic. Keith laughed though. "Shiro is the only family I have." Lance looked surprised and a little horrified. "What?" he asked, voice hoarse. Keith smiled. "Well you know why I don't know my mother..." Lance winced. "And my father disappeared when I was six." Lance looked like he might cry. "I can't imagine..." he whispered, sounding like he was talking to himself. "Don't try," Keith told him. "Don't feel bad, Dad wasn't really a good father anyway..."
"You miss him anyway." Lance said it like fact and Keith wanted to be mad, but he was still wiped from the lack of food and the surprisingly deep conversation. "No, I don't," he said resolutely. Lance shook his head. "You're trying not to, but... I know what it's like to have a not great family member, okay? You love them anyway," he said and Keith looked surprised. They way Lance talked about his family he figured they were all incredibly close, and said so to Lance who smiled. "We are," he said fondly. "But my oldest brother has a drug problem and we don't talk anymore. I love him though. Even if he did so stuff when he lived with us." he smiled. "Now it's just my parents and my sisters. And my sister has a little boy on the way! She's due any..." Lance trailed off, realizing. "He's already born. I was supposed... I was supposed to be his godfather." Keith could tell he was talking to himself but he scooted closer anyway, and took the "smoothie". "You still are. You'll meet him. I promise," he said, echoing Lance earlier. Lance noticed, smiling sadly. "You think?" he asked, and Keith nodded. "I know."
Lance handed him the cereal, telling him to eat, and Keith did, strangely feeling a bit better to stomach it with Lance there.
"Thanks," Keith said after a while of sitting in comfortable silence. "I feel better." He was talking about his physical body, but the undercurrent was there. Lance nodded, "Me too." He smiled and Keith smiled a little too. "Hey I probably won't forget this 'bonding moment.'" Lance teased, and Keith pushed him.