I felt something slip into my hand as I made my way out. It was Lance's. I looked at him and said, "alright, you can hang out with me, BUT NO CHEESY JOKES."

"ALRIGHTY," he sniggered. "So, where are you going?"

I shrugged.

"I dunno, we could grab something to eat at the space mall or something."

"Sure! Maybe somewhere else besides Vrepit Sal?"

"Yeah, that sounds good," I laughed.

Coming downstairs, the room was empty. It was just us.

"Looks like it's only us~" he smirked, placing an arm around me in a suave manner.

"Why do you have to hit on me in the most obvious places—" I was quick to throw it off.

"Aw, why do we have to conceal our ceaseless and persevering love from the others? Not even a legion of 10,000 warriors could penetrate through it! We could stand through a million conflagrations together—anything! From the core of the earth to the depths of the universe! Tell me—why, WHY!?"

"'Cuz my brother thinks you're a loser with no brain cells to rub together," I responded plainly.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot—thanks for reminding me."

I shot him a playful smile before turning to the door. Once I placed my hand on the knob, I heard a voice that made me cringe.

"Where are you two going?" Keith asked me. I peered over my shoulder to see him in a black shirt with his favorite band logo printed on the front—My Chemical Romance. He also had a tub of popcorn in his arm, and vanilla ice cream in the other. He shot a condescending glare my way.

"Uhh, Keith!" I exclaimed nervously. I now found myself facing him. "Uhm. . .I thought you were lactose intolerant," I pointed out—gesturing to the ice cream. "Why ya eating it then?"

"Because I like to punish myself. . ." Yup, typical of him.

"Okay. . .that's hecking weird, but anyways, to answer your question. . .! I was just gonna. . .get something to eat."

"With Lance?" he rose his eyebrow mid-sentence.

"Whaaa? No! Of course, not. Ew," I pretended to look disgusted. Lance looked back at me with a fake scowl.

"What restaurant?" Why was he so nosy all the sudden? I died inside, yet I still managed to stay a little bit normal during his interrogation.

"In dunno, I mean, there aren't that many options in outer space," I countered—quickly returning to my previous task and opening the door.

"Whatever, just don't stay out too long," he ended before sitting on the couch. I bet he was watching those old tapes that Shiro had of The Addams Family again.

I came closer to the hangars, all I needed to do was wait for Lance. After waiting several minutes, I saw his face behind an air vent. He waved at me.

"Geez, you didn't have to go that extreme!" I tried hiding my giggle.

"Don't worry, I got this." I knew where this was going, obviously. So, he gripped the outside bars of the air vent with his hands. He began shaking them—and without warning, he fell. Me being me, I tried to catch him, but that didn't work out the way I wanted to because now, he was on top of me. It felt like a building.

"Owwwww," I grunted. "You coulda just used the other door, you know. . ."

Lance lifted his head up and looked at the other entrance I was referring to. "Yeah, but—that's not as epic." He arose and extended his hand. I took it and he helped pull me up. Due to the temporary dizziness, I swayed in his direction. He cradled me in his arms, saying, "aw, are we having a bonding moment~?"

"You've always wanted to say that, haven't you?"

". . .Yes—"

I laughed and continued off to the Blue Lion. Lance ran ahead of me and hugged the machine.

"Hey there, Blue~! Aw, don't be jealous—she's only my girlfriend. No hard feelings, right?"

"Aw, are you two having a bonding moment~?" I quoted with a smirk.

Lance turned to me with a speechless expression. "Whatever, let's just get on!" I nodded and ran on the ship with him. We both sat down in our seats. He readied the engine or whatever this thing ran on. If it was like Lance, then it probably ran on memes and broken dreams.

"Hey, can I put in one of my CDs?" I asked him. He nodded. I reached for my CD bag. . .only to find out that I accidentally brought the wrong one. "Quiznak, I brought Keith's instead."

"Well, maybe he has some music we can borrow."

I searched in there, pulling out case after case. "My Chemical Romance, Evanescence. . ." I continued on until I found something that looked halfway decent. "Ah! Here's a band called I Hate my Sister's Boyfriend."

We both stayed silent for a few seconds. "On second thought, let's just talk!" Lance chuckled nervously.

After a while, we arrived at the mall. Lance found a parking space after a rough ten minutes. We headed inside to see the crowds of people leisurely strolling around.

"I heard they opened up a better food place here," Lance reported. Seemed interesting enough to check it out. When he said 'better', it must have seemed nicer than Vrepit Sal.

"Sure! Let's try it."

As we walked around the mall, browsing merchandise—it came the time to finally eat! We arrived at the place. It was called Milliways. Their motto being, "billions of years in the making".

Lance mumbled, "billion years? They opened up yesterday—"

I beamed with excitement before taking Lance's hand and running up to the counter. Lance smiled at me. The cashier lady was an elder. If anything was a billion years old—it was her. Her face sagged with wrinkles and her oversized round glasses covered her eyes due to the light glare. She also looked like an alien or something. But I couldn't detect the species.

"Hi, I'd like to order. . .hmm," Lance thought for a moment. I patiently waited for my turn. The lady had a tired expression. "How about, the double cheese burger?" They sold burgers here? Nice. . .

"Oh, the earthling food," she mumbled. "Alright, what else?"

"A strawberry milkshake!"

She wrote it down on her mini notepad. "And for you?" she asked me. I walked up closer to the counter—and began to think of what I was in the mood for. Suddenly, I heard a gasp that interrupted my train of thought. I looked at the woman, she was scrutinizing at my eyes. Like, she was studying them. "You. . ." she whispered in an angered voice.

"Huh?" Lance grew concerned.

The lady continued, "your one of them. . .a Galra. . .your people did this. . ." Wait, she referring to me being Galra? But how? I don't have the features of one.

"I'm sorry, what?" My smiled faded as I tilted my head in confusion.

"No. I won't serve your kind. You showed no mercy to my people, so I have no reason to show any to yours." She turned away before placing a napkin down. Her words struck me like a lighting bolt. "All you are is a filthy Galra and you don't deserve anything."

I went pale—my hands cold. Hearing this hurt me. I usually didn't react in such a way, but this did it for me. And right then and there, I began to cry. I couldn't tell if the customers behind me were with me or against me. Suddenly, two hands slammed against the counter. I looked up to see Lance staring the old woman down.

"Look, fossil," he began. "You might want to shut your quiznak there. She's my girlfriend and I won't let you treat her like that."

"How could you date a—"

"And who are you to call her filthy?" Lance then looked at her crooked teeth. "Blair Walsh would've made that field goal yesterday if your teeth were the uprights."

"I beg your pardon!" the old hag scoffed. "Look, if you want trouble, I'll call security on you."

Lance huffed before taking my hand and stormed away.

"Why did you say that to a customer? She wasn't even Galra!" the manager asked.

"I've live a long time. . .I could see it in her eyes."

"We're gonna lose business if you keep that up."

Lance was leading me through the crowds of people. I could barely see the direction we were heading in due to the tears clouding my vision. It was embarrassing to be called out like that in front of everyone. I may have lost my best friend, Allura, over the situation. But I wasn't going to lose my dignity. Lance led me to a place in the mall that was kind of empty. It was a corner with a few benches and chairs. There was an abandoned outlet on the side, so no one really came in this part. I sat down with him.

"How did she even know. . ." I asked, almost inaudible to Lance.

"It doesn't matter. She was wrong—"

I interjected, "yeah, but. . .in a way, she wasn't. I mean, Galra do have a bad name—so I can't really blame anyone for thinking like that. It's just, I wish I wasn't a part of it."

Lance brought me into his embrace. "It's gonna be okay."

I contently closed my eyes. I had to admit, I felt a bit better. The reason I was in a relationship with Lance was because. . .he knew how to always make me smile. We always supported each other in dark times—which eventually grew into this. I loved Lance for every bit of that. I didn't realize that I had feelings for him until one particular event though. . .