He hardly slept that night, even after taking his armour off and relaxing into the bathrobe he borrowed from Allura. Even his favourite music couldn't send him off.

The insecurities rooted in his heart were growing rapidly into thorny bushes with poisonous berries, choking up his system and dragging sleep further and further away from him.

The lights were off, he was comfortable, he had his favourite sleeping music playing through his headphones, what else could his body ask for?

He was exhausted, but he was wide awake.

Eventually, Lance gave up, accepting that he wasn't going to drift off.

"Jodido." He whispered, automatically speaking Spanish. He only ever did it when there was nobody else around, even though it wouldn't matter. The castle and the lions were equipped with automatic on-the-spot language translators. Everyone understood everyone else, as they only heard their first language being spoken.

Despite this, Lance heard everyone in regular old English, even though Spanish was his first language. 'Maybe it's a malfunction' he always thought. It was frustrating, because he still hadn't gotten a 100% hold of English grammar and sometimes had to ask people to repeat statements.

It would also be reassuring, to hear his first language coming out of somebody else's mouth.

He wandered around the silent castle for quite a while, aimlessly. He didn't know how to pass the time. There wasn't much opportunity to do so usually, so, the Paladins hadn't made much of an effort to create leisure activities.

He could go and play video games... He could visit Kalternecker... He could just keep wandering.

Nothing appealed to him. What was he going to do? Just sit there and do nothing? Apparently.

His mind jumped to his family. They probably thought he was dead and that hurt. Was anyone looking for him? Was anyone looking for any of them?

The garrison claimed to have searched for Shiro, Matt and Matt's father when they all went missing, but didn't come back with anything.

What if he never saw anyone still on earth ever again? He didn't know if he could deal with that.

He was still exhausted, and he was still wide awake. He needed to get some sleep, in case they were thrown into the thick of it again tomorrow.

Lance sighed and started making his way back to his room, blue lion slippers scuffing against the polished floor, when movement registered in the corner of his eye.

... an intruder?

Coran always put the castle on some sort of chameleon mode before everyone went to sleep, so it made no sense that another person would be able to sneak on.

Lance cursed silently when he remembered that he left his bayard in his room. How would he protect himself? He couldn't punch all that hard.

The movement started up again, and Lance braced himself to fight in vain but then...

The mice toddled out of the shadows.

Lance breathed a sigh of relief and crouched down, scratching one of them behind the ear.

"¿Entonces, ustedes tampoco pueden dormir?"

'So, you guys can't sleep either?'

They all started pressing at his hand, silently asking for ear scratches.

"¿Cómo puede Allura entenderte, pero no yo?"

'How can Allura understand you, but not me?'

They didn't reply.

'Because they're Altean mice, Lance, and the translators won't work for them. Probably' he thought.

Lance's slight smile dropped and he gave each mouse a quick ear massage, before standing up and walking away.

Even the bloody mice weren't interested in him.

If Zarkon himself had walked past, offering head rubs, they probably would have treated him just the same

He made it back to his own room and he lay down, staring at the ceiling.

"Duerme," he whispered to himself, "Duerme duerme."

He closed his eyes and tried to clear his mind.

Eventually, after a frustrating while, he fell asleep.