He marched toward the lounge, the team always meet up there at the end of the day for bonding and up until a few weeks ago didn't question Lance's absence. How could he have been so stupid, he knew, hell all of them knew that Lance had problems with his self-worth. Which made it all the more angering that the others were willingly putting him through this. He clenched his jaw and stomped through the lounge doors to see everyone laughing and setting up Pidge's laptop to start another movie. They looked over with a smile and waved him over.

"Where's Lance?" He asked instead. Would they lie to him again? Without hesitation, Pidge perked up.

"He said that he was going to do a spa thing for himself or something," she said rolling her eyes but not taking her eyes off the monitor. Hunk nodded his head in agreement and started hooking up the wires to the monitor. Keith remained silent and stared down at them with a piercing glare. When they heard no response they looked up at him and immediately flinched at the malice that was in his eyes.

"Why are you lying to me?" He growled at the two. They cowered under his gaze and looked at Shiro when he started walking towards them.

"Keith, buddy, what are you talking about?" He asked putting his hand on his shoulder. He didn't relax like he usually did and turned to face Shiro.

"Why are you guys lying to me about Lance?" He asked again. They became obviously flustered before Pidge calmly broke in.

"Why do you think we're lying about Lance? I was with him right before you came in," she said confidently looking him in the eyes.

"It disgusts me that you can look right into my eyes and lie to me," he hissed. Pidge flinched back in shock as Keith stomped towards her ripping Shiro's hand off of his shoulder.

"So, do you want to guess where I was before this?" He asked the room. They looked away from him and rubbed their necks trying to avoid the tension in the room.

"I was reassuring him of his place of the team because he thinks that he is worthless as a paladin," he said quietly standing over Pidge. "I laid him down in his bed while he cried, wondering why he was chosen over someone more qualified and useful," she looked down at the ground in shock.

"No! You don't get to look away!" Keith yelled stomping his foot in front of her making her look back up.

"You made him feel like he didn't have a place among us!" He cried, tears were beginning to trek down his face but he ignored them.

"He is one of the most talented, selfless and caring people that I ever had the pleasure to meet, and you had the audacity to make him suffer for it," he spat pointing a finger in her face. "You knew that he would never complain, no matter how bad he was feeling about himself because he didn't want to bother anybody with it, and you took advantage of that, didn't you?" He accused. Her lip quivered as she gave him a small nod before she put her head in her hands and started weeping into them.

"I was wiping away his tears when he told me that his friends didn't like him and that it wasn't surprising to him," he turned to Hunk with a poisonous glare. Hunk's eyes widened mournfully.

"Don't." Keith barked when Hunk opened his mouth. "Out of everyone here, I'm so fucking disappointed at you Hunk, you know how terrible Lance feels about himself, and you ignored it for this sick game you all played," he leaned forward into Hunk's personal space, even though he was a head shorter than him. He still seemed to cower away from the paladin.

"Did you think it would be funny?" He shouted. Hunk frantically shook his head no, he was beginning to cry.

"You're right, it wasn't funny; how would you feel if your so-called friends ignored you? If they spent time together without you? If the first thing they did when they saw you, was tell you to be quiet?" Hunk kept shaking his head, tears coursing down his cheeks. Keith sniffed trying to keep face. He finally turned to Shiro who was looking down at the ground ashamed. He grabbed the front of his shirt and dragged him down harshly to meet his eyes.

"I was making sure he didn't get sick while he ate because he had been starving himself because he wanted to change for you," he screamed in Shiro's face. "He willingly stopped eating because you wouldn't tell him when we were eating, he thought that he didn't deserve to eat!"

"K-Keith I," Shiro started. Keith pushed him away, making him stumble where Pidge and Hunk sat crying.

"You know how painful it is for someone to be starved! You know how painful it is for someone! He did that willingly, and he looked for your acceptance! You didn't even notice!" It was getting harder and harder for him to stay in control, he wanted to be back with Lance, comforting him and making sure he felt safe. Not even watching Shiro's face crumble in regret could stop the rage that bubbled in his stomach. The leader let out a shuddering breath before he lifted a hand to cover his eyes and the tears that fell past his chin.

"How could you do this to him?" He wailed, finally losing his composure. The dam broke and choked sobs tore out of his throat, he thought of the clear impressions of Lance's ribs. The way he tore himself down in front of Keith, the acceptance in his voice when he told Keith about the way he felt, and how he said it was no one's fault but his own.

"We just wanted to help you," Hunk said finally. Voice raspy from the sobs that still came out of his mouth.

"What?"

"Lance has a big family back on Earth and you didn't have very many friends, so we wanted to bond with you but Lance would just fight with you," Pidge tried to explain, although a loud gasp would interrupt at some parts. She clutched on to Hunk's arm and hugged it to her chest for comfort. They looked up at Keith at the confession.

"What the fuck is wrong with you guys?" He whispered harshly. They flinched back at the venom in his voice.

"How could you think that I would accept that when Lance is so miserable?!" He gripped his hair in his hands. "You guys disgust me, how could turn your back on him like he was nothing? You've been treating him like he's not even human!" They whimpered looking towards the ground.

"And the worst part is that he didn't beg for your attention, all he did was ask three little questions!" They clenched their eyes shut; memories of Lance coming to them day after day hopefulness on his face. Even after they declined he only gave them a smile before he left with a 'have a good day!'

"You better fix this, Lance doesn't deserve this shit," he said quietly, turning and waking out on them. Not looking back, he headed back to the quarters. Before he could enter his own room, he walked a bit further and went to Lance's. His heart clenched when he saw tears running down his cheeks in his sleep. He sat on the edge of the bed and gently wiped them away.

"Keith?" His voice was barely above a whisper as he blearily looked up at Keith with red-rimmed eyes. He swallowed back the tears that wanted to reappear at the sight and brushed his hand through his hair.

"Yup," he replied just as quietly. Lance gave him a warm smile and leaned his head into the hand.

"Are you okay?" Lance asked concerned looking at the red marks on his face. Keith laughed and wiped away the traces of tears and looked down at the Cuban boy fondly.

"Just couldn't sleep," he whispered. He tried to stay strong in front of Lance. He had been through so much already, but he could see how hallow his cheekbones had become. His chin quivered and a sad keen escaped from him. Lance wrapped his arms around Keith's neck and pulled him down to lay with him.

"I'm so sorry Lance," he bawled. Lance shushed him and pushed his head into his shoulder.

"You already apologized Keith, and you didn't even need to apologize in the first place,"

"It's just not fair, why did it have to be you?" he asked quietly. "Why did you have to suffer alone?"

"Keith it's okay," Lance tried, running his fingers through his hair. Keith lifted his head to meet Lance's eyes.

"It's not okay," he argued, "none of this is okay, Lance,"

"Maybe not," he hummed after a moment of silence, "but that doesn't change anything Keith,"

Lance hugged Keith tighter to himself and buried his face in his hair. Keith grabbed his back to drag him closer and rested his face on Lance's chest. Soon enough, their breaths evened out and they fell into a comfortable slumber.

______________________________________________________

"Keith," a voice said quietly in his ear. He tried batting it away from his ear and snuggled back into the warm he was laying on. There was a soft laugh as the warmth started moving around, he grumbled and held tighter until it stilled. He opened his eyes and blushed when he came face to face with a grinning Lance.

"Morning," he said gently. Keith stammered out a good morning and scrambled off of the bed and fell to the floor.

"Are you okay?" Lance asked panicked as he helped Keith back up to his feet.

"Uh, yeah, yes! I'm fine, I was just surprised," he said sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck and sending a smile Lance's way.

"Right, well, um, do you want to go get breakfast?" He asked twirling his fingers nervously. "I didn't really pay attention to how much I got last time,"

"Oh, right! Yeah, let's get breakfast," he said walking out of the room, Lance trailing behind him.

They neared the kitchen and heard a loud bang. They looked at each other and rushed into the room, where Shiro, Pidge, and Hunk were standing around a smoking mixing bowl.

"What the heck happened?" Lance asked with concern.

"Sorry Lance, we were trying to make you a nice breakfast but we still can't read a lot of this stuff," Hunk said earnestly looking down at the ground.

"What? For me?" He asked in confusion, tilting his head slightly in consideration.

"Yeah, to say sorry and stuff," Pidge said miserably hunched over from where she sat on the counter.

"Sorry for what?" He asked genuinely confused. Even though he had talked to Keith, it didn't mean that he shifted the blame off of himself.

"For making you think that we hate you," Shiro grimaced, clutching the counter as if he was in physical pain.

"Wait, you don't hate me?" He asked quietly. Their heads snapped over to him and saw that he was tearing up. They dropped everything and ran over to him; Hunk lifted him into his arms, Shiro and Pidge wrapping around any part they could reach of him.

"No, no we don't. We could never hate you," Shiro gasped petting Lance's hair frantically.

"We're so sorry, we didn't mean to," Hunk sobbed rubbing his face in Lance's chest.

"We shouldn't have ignored to like we did, we're sorry Lance," Pidge bawled. Lance looked at them in disbelief, he ignored the tears and snot that was soaking through his clothes and looked over to Keith. He gave him a wide, hopeful smile, which was returned by Keith.

They would have a lot to make up for, and Lance had a lot of confidence he had to gain back. Before, his days were filled with doubt, with only one spot of sunshine. He never changed his routine, but now, every day;

Three little questions were answered with a yes.