Not A Big Deal - Part 2

@the-nerdy-fangirl@klance-or-die@black-and-white-eyes

I’m shocked by all the attention this story is getting, thank you all for reading! Part 1

Lance gets reckless because he thinks that since no one reacted to him dying, death must not mean anything anymore since Allura can bring them back.

A few Galnians followed the team, carrying the supplies they had promised to the lions. The team was tense, reluctantly silent, everyone keeping an eye on Lance.

As soon as they got to the lions and the aliens could leave, they turned on him. Keith didn’t even wait for them to be fully out of earshot.

“What the Hell was that, Lance?” Keith got in his face immediately.

Lance defensively laughed it off, and before he even opened his mouth to speak Keith was yelling again.

“You need to take this seriously! Dammit, are you actually on a mission to die?” And Lance was quieted by the look in Keith’s eye. He wasn’t just angry; he looked terrified.

Shiro put a hand on Keith’s shoulder. “Keith’s right. What you did today was dangerous. You gambled your life for nothing!”

“It wasn’t nothing! I got us-”

“We could have made do with what we already had! What made you think that was okay?” Shiro was trying to walk the line of being calm and losing control enough to show Lance how serious the situation was.

“I-uh- I thought-” With all the eyes on him, Lance suddenly wasn’t so sure about things. He looked at the ground and mumbled. “I thought it wasn’t really a big deal.”

“Not a big deal? Lance, you could have died!” Pidge yelled.

“So? Allura could just-”

“Are you kidding me? You think that because Allura can sometimes bring people back, you’re invincible?” Keith was furious.

“Uh… yeah?” Lance sounded unsure.

Hunk had stayed back before, trying to give Lance the benefit of the doubt, but now he stepped forward. “Lance, you can’t act like this. Like you’re unstoppable, like you’re all-powerful. It’s-”

“Stupid and arrogant.” Keith finished.

“I was going to say dangerous, but alright.” Hunk shrugged.

“It’s not like that!” Tears were welling up in Lance’s eyes.

“What’s it like, then?” Keith countered.

Suddenly Lance felt a bit of anger. “Well what else was I supposed to think, huh? It’s either that death wasn’t a big deal for us anymore or that you all just didn’t care about mine specifically!”

Silence fell over the group. Lance saw Allura out her head in her hands.

“What are you talking about?” Pidge asked softly, cautiously.

Lance only looked at Allura. “You didn’t tell them. Are you serious, this whole time they just didn’t know?”

“Wait, wait, wait. Can someone please explain what’s going on?” Hunk asked.

Allura looked up. “When Lance saved me from that beam and he stopped responding, I went into Red to check on him and he- he was dead, I had to bring him back like I did with Shiro.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Hunk asked. “Don’t you think it would be a little importat for his best friend to know he died?”

“Maybe it wasn’t that big of a deal.” Lance grumbled.

“That’s not what happened, Lance. You know I care very much for all of you, I just- When I first found you I had to focus on bringing you back as soon as possible. Then after I- well, at the moment I didn’t want to alarm anyone in the middle of the battle, but then I thought about it and I didn’t want to talk too much about what happened because if the team thought I could just revive anyone from death, you would all start taking less care of yourselves.” Allura grimaced. “I suppose that plan didn’t work too well.”

She cleared her throat and continued. “For the record, I got lucky bringing back the two of you. Conditions have to be specific, the body has to be mostly undamaged, and chance plays a part too. It is never something to rely on.”

“Got it, princess.” Lance whispered. He paused. “So if- uh- if no one else brought it up because they didn’t know, why didn’t you talk to me about me dying?”

“I avoided the subject because I thought you would be mad at me.”

“Mad at you? You saved my life!”

“I was also the reason you died!” She argued.

“Hey, I chose to take that hit for you!”

“You shouldn’t have had to. I was-”

“We all let our guard down sometimes. It’s fine, princess. I just really wish you at least told me you weren’t telling anyone about it. I just assumed everyone knew and didn’t care enough to have a reaction. So I came to my own conclusions.”

“You think we just wouldn’t mention you being dead?” Pidge tilted her head.

“I mean, there was a lot going on, and it was only for a few minutes, so-”

“Most people aren’t dead for any amount of time!” Hunk yelled.

“Well it’s not like it’s anywhere near how long Shiro was-”

“Stop.” Shiro stepped forward, putting a hand on Lance’s shoulder. “Lance, we can’t ignore our own problems because we think someone has it worse. You all have been through more than you should have to, and you shouldn’t feel like you can’t be upset about it.”

“I- uh- okay?”

“And you need to be more careful on missions. Death isn’t something to be taken lightly. I understand why you started acting like this, but you need to stop. You have to value your own life, and trust your other paladins to not get killed when you aren’t jumping between them and danger.”

Lance winced. So they noticed he was taking blows for others more often. “But what if-”

Shiro sighed. “I know you want to protect the rest of the team, but none of them want you to get hurt for them. They can hold their own.”

“I know, it’s just- nevermind. I’ll try to stop doing that so much.”

Finally Keith spoke again. “So if you thought Allura told them, why didn’t you tell me? When you were telling me about what I missed when I was gone, you didn’t even-”

“What do you want me to say, Keith? I knew no one else thought much of it and I didn’t want to actually watch someone’s first reaction to my death and have it be brushing it off as an unimportant detail. I thought you especially wouldn’t care and I didn’t want to see that.”

Especially. The word hit Keith in the gut and he threw his arms around Lance before he knew what he was doing. Soon more joined in.

When the hug was finally over, Hunk put an arm over Lance’s shoulder. “How about we hang out for a while and you tell me all about the time you heroically saved Allura and came back from the dead?”