Blue

Chapter 10

Lance felt the whoosh of air whip past his face. Lance fell boneless into someone's arms. He felt the warm embrace and dizzily returned it. He looked up through his eyelashes to see Keith. He inhaled deeply and marveled in the scent of his alpha. It was nice, like campfires and wet Earth. 

"Lance," Keith asked, concern dripping out of his words. "Lance? Oh thank God I was so worried.."

"Keith?" Lance asked, his voice hoarse from the pod. The pod? How did he get there? "Keith what happened?"

"You fell off a balcony," Keith said through his teeth, his scent twinged with distress. Lance purred and spread calming pheromones to calm his alpha. "You nearly died, Lance..."

"Balcony?" Lance asked. What was he doing on a balcony? Then it hit him. He remembered everything. He was nesting there because he wanted somewhere safe. Because his alpha rejected him. Because Keith rejected him. Keith didn't want him. Lance pushed out of Keith's arms. Keith looked at him in confusion.

"Lance?" he asked wearily. 

"Sorry," Lance said. "I didn't mean to bother you even more."

Keith narrowed his eyes. "What are you talking about--"

"LANCE!" Hunk screamed. Lance whipped his head around to see the beta rushing towards him. He scooped Lance into a huge hug, and Keith had to stop himself from growling. Lance giggled against the beta's chest and lightly pushing away with a playful grin. 

"Hey Hunk," Lance laughed. 

"Don't you ever do that again!" Hunk scolded. "I was so worried. What were you even doing on a balcony? That was the opposite of safe!" 

"I don't know," Lance confessed, looking away from Hunk. "I don't even remember moving there. The last thing I remember was being sad and then falling off..." Hunk looked at Lance with new worry glinting in his eyes. 

"Lance...you didn't...jump? Did you?" Hunk whispered. 

"What? No! God no!" Lance cried. "I'd never do that! You know I'd never--"

"Then why did you cut yourself?" Hunk asked seriously. Lance flinched. 

"He did WHAT?!" Keith cried. He jumped up and raced over to Lance, grasping his chin in his hand, forcing Lance to meet Keith's eyes. "Lance..did you cut yourself?" Lance's silence answered Keith. "Why?" he asked. 

Keith's alpha was raging. His omega harmed himself. Why? What could possibly cause his love so much pain that they'd resort to harming themselves? Why didn't Lance tell anyone he felt like this?

"It hurt so much..." Lance whimpered, shuddering at the memory of the fire. "I thought that if I hurt myself it wouldn't make the heat as bad.."

"Oh Lance," Hunk sighed. "That's not how it works. What were you thinking?"

"I wasn't," Lance said, throwing his hands up in exasperation."That's the thing. I was so far gone I wasn't even thinking. All I knew was that I didn't have an alpha and that was the only thing that would make the heat stop." 

Keith visibly flinched at the mention of Lance's lack of an alpha. So it was his fault Lance hurt himself. Keith's alpha whined. Keith was a horrible alpha. "Lance I'm so sor--"

"It wasn't your fault," Lance said immediately, turning his head so he wouldn't have to look Keith in the eyes. "I was being stupid. I thought that.." Lance trailed off.

"Thought what?" Keith asked seriously. 

"Nothing, it's nothing." Lance said with a dismissal wave of his hand. Keith wanted to press Lance more, but a shake of Hunk's head warned him otherwise. Keith grudgingly backed off the subject. 

"Well, good news is your heat has been delayed due to your injuries," Hunk said, causing Lance's eyes to snap up to meet the beta's. 

"That can happen?" Lance asked doubtfully. 

"It's not ideal," Hunk said. "But it rare cases where the omega is severely injured, the body with put of it's heat to focus on healing the injuries."

"Oh." Lance said. "But my injuries are healed." 

"Yes, so you're body is probably going to go back to it's heat cycle shortly. Tonight or tomorrow, I assume." Hunk said. "Man, you can't have just one normal heat, can you Lance?"

Lance laughed. "You're telling me." 

"Well the others are waiting for you," Hunk said. "Wanna go see them?"

"Actually, Hunk, I kind of wanted to talk to Lance first," Keith cut in. Lance knew what the talk was going to be about. He was going to be told to fuck off. To leave Keith alone because he wasn't interested in Lance. Keith was going to formally reject Lance. And Lance wasn't ready for that.

Not yet.

"Aw c'mon mullet!" Lance complained. "Lemme see them. We can talk afterwards right? Plus, I'm hungry as hell." He wasn't. Lance was just stalling. He really really really didn't want to have this talk with Keith. 

Keith frowned but nodded. "I guess it can wait." he said. Lance grinned triumphantly and followed Hunk out of the med bay. 

The others were waiting for Lance in the common room. Lance sat down and comfortably lounged across Hunk and Pidge's laps. Keith tried to hide his jealousy. He just wanted Lance to come and sit in his lap, where he belonged. 

"So Lance," Shiro said, eyeing Lance with caution. "I think we should have a group talk, yes?"

Suddenly it hit Lance that he had just traded one uncomfortable talk for another. At least he had picked the lesser of two evils. Lance sighed. "Yes I suppose we have to, don't we?" 

"Lance why did you lie about your endotype?" Shiro asked. Wow Shiro, real blunt. 

Lance shrugged, already uncomfortable. "I just didn't want you guys to treat me differently." Lance said. "You know, where I'm from people don't treat omega's very well. I was just afraid that..."

"Lance no one here thinks less of you because you're an omega," Shiro said. "And it seems that half of the team already knew..." Shiro glared playfully at the two betas. They just laughed. "Lance, you're still the same Lance, omega or no. We could never think less of you because of that."

"Thanks Shiro," Lance said, trying to fight back tears that were definitely coming. Shiro just smiled. 

"Now, I'm sure you're hungry," Shiro said, standing up. Shiro took the role of pack alpha very seriously and there was no way he was letting a member of his pack, starve. "I'm sure Hunk has warned you that your heat will be returning?"

"Yeah he did," Lance said sheepishly. 

"Do you know where you're staying?" Shiro asked kindly. Lance knew that he was asking if Lance wanted his pack to help him through his heat. 

"I think....I'll spend it with the pack?" Lance said, ducking his head to hide his blush. "I-if that's okay?"

"Of course it is," Shiro said, his alpha preening. The only omega in the group was willing to spend his heat with everyone. It meant Lance trusted his pack. "Hunk? Would you care to help me get some provisions?" 

"Of course," Hunk said, shifting so that Lance was on the couch and went to help Shiro. 

"Lance? Can we talk now?" Keith asked suddenly. Lance froze, looking at Keith uncertainly. 

"I...um...well...Pidge..?" Lance scrambled around to find an excuse but was coming up short. 

"I'm sure Pidge has better things to do," Keith said, snarling the barely concealed threat to Pidge. "Don't you Pidge?"

"How would you know--" Pidge started. 

"Bye Pidge." Keith hissed. Pidge glared at stood up, sending Lance to the floor. Lance groaned as he collided with the ground. 

"Bye bitch," Pidge muttered. 

Keith, satisfied. turned to Lance. 

"Let's talk."