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Though he'd never admit it, Lance is fucking whipped.
There isn't a day that passes by when he doesn't think about you, mainly because you keep crashing into his life.
Literally (and figuratively, but he'd never say that out loud).
At first he thought you were trying to hit on him, because it seemed like you fell down or dropped something every time he so much as looked in your direction.
It irritated him at first, constantly having to help you up or pick up what you'd dropped, but it soon becomes as much a staple of his lifestyle in the castle as walking in on Hunk stuffing his face or Coran yammering everyone's ears off.
He thinks you're kind of cute, in a mousy sort of way, and he slowly discovers that he doesn't actually mind helping you out if it means he can make you laugh a little longer or keep talking to you about nothing.
So yeah, he does get a little bit jealous when you fall in front of Keith too.
And who cares if he gets a little pouty when you and Keith smile sheepishly at each other? It's not like you like Keith, right?
Right?
And so goes his runaway train of thought, thinking up all the terrible scenarios in which you and Keith become an item and he never even had a chance.
It takes Hunk's jittery reassurance and Pidge's exasperated admonishment for him to regain some semblance of sanity.
It's embarrassing, honestly.
He'd always imagined himself going after women like Allura, graceful and beautiful, not someone like you, cluttered and too bubbly.
But then again, he should be aware by now that life has a way of defying any and all of humanity's greatest expectations.
-/-
Sometimes Lance regrets going to help Shiro.
Yes, he turned out to be the Blue Lion's Paladin, but he wonders sometimes, if he hadn't forced Pidge and Hunk to go to the mysterious spaceship, would things have turned out differently? Would he still be on Earth right now?
Would he be home?
But when he thinks about you for the umpteenth time, gentle clumsiness and all, he realizes that you're the closest thing to home he's ever known.
Had he not gone to help Shiro, he wouldn't have met you. And with that, the regret for his brash actions loosens its grip on his conscious just a little bit.
You have an odd way of easing the tension in his shoulders, of smoothing the crease between his eyebrows. There's something comforting in your touch and in your expression, and so it's really not his fault that every time they come back from a stressful mission you're the first person he wants to see.
There's a certain relief he feels when you greet him at the doorway with a grin and a platter of cookies.
"Welcome back," you say without fail, "glad you came back safely!"
He resists the urge of hugging you and whispering a quick, i'm home, into your ear.
Instead, he just snags a couple cookies and pops them into his mouth, ruffling your hair.
"Were you worried about me?" Lance asks every time.
You pat his chest and laugh, "You wish."
Lance hopes you don't feel how hard his heart is beating when you touch him.
