Keith froze, feeling the gap between him and the blue paladin increase as he slipped further and further away and into the thick vegetation spread all over the planet.
He had to do something, anything to show this big goof that he’s a vital part of the team…
A light flashed beneath his eyes and suddenly he knew. With a newfound triumph making its way onto his raised shoulders, he ran after Lance, calling his name all the while.
He had to make the pained boy realise that no matter what, after all they had been through-they were a team, a family.
And no team works well without all its members working together.
*****
Lance knew he was following him, heard the echoes of Keith’s voice ring through the hollows of the trees, but he was too far in and far too tired to bother stopping or replying to him.
What use would it be anyway? What purpose would letting Keith confront him have?
Keith would say something snarky, because his oh-so-amazing skills and efforts seem to vanish whenever Lance is involved. He’d say something back, shooting icy daggers through his stares, hoping to freeze the red paladin in place and take that fire out of his eyes, let the cold penetrate his bones…
…who was he kidding. He didn’t want to hurt Keith. Not really. He didn’t want to hurt anyone for that matter.
Since the beginning of this whole ordeal, no, before that even, Lance had always taken it upon himself to put on the facade of the comic relief in whichever company he found himself.
It didn’t matter if he was reeking with envy or if sadness plunged into his heart threatening to burst it into pieces. He’d put on a smile, laugh his pain away, joke it away, pretend nothing ever affected him, that no one ever got under his falsely thick skin and manic grin.
Yet he felt, he felt it all. The sadness, the pain, the anger. The anger, the loudest, most dominant feeling pooling in his chest, how it threatened to come out whenever he found his body slumped onto the ground, whenever he became a stepping stone for someone to climb over, forever unable to be the one to climb instead.
It hurt, of course it did. How could anyone feel all the feelings he felt, all the incompetence, the pain, the struggle, the failure-how could he feel all that and hide it under a grin? How long would it take until his body got torn apart by the things he left unsaid, how long until the sealed emotions found their way through his mouth and split his jaw from its’ hinges?
He didn’t bother fighting back the tears anymore, the familiar purring of Blue long lost from his ears after the distance he travelled.
At a closer inspection, Keith’s yells also stopped at some point, letting noises of the surrounding nature engulf his mind.
He was at peace with it, ready to settle down under the nearest tree and let it’s roots dig their way into his skin, when he heard a petrified yell, an all too familiar voice yelling bloody murder from a nearby distance, as if in grave danger.
“…Keith?!”