"I bet he thinks he's all powerful since Shiro is gone but I won't let think for a second that he's any better than us." Lance chided, leaning against the palace wall swinging his sword. Hunk was partially listening to what his companion, as this was a conversation they've had multiple times over the year and found quite annoying. He had his back turned to Lance as he was checking the perimeters as they were supposed to, spotting nothing in large forests surrounding the castle. If it wasn't for Hunk, half of the time Lance wouldn't even perform his duties properly.

Pidge was at one of the other stations on the South side of the castle with Rover while Keith covered the West. Lance should be at the North station but always found his way to the East station to talk to Hunk. The two always seemed to be found together, just like Rover and Pidge. Even before they ventured to Altea they were close friends back on Earth as they met at an aerospace academy.

Hunk adjusted his armor, which never seemed to stay on. His armor was accented yellow as all of the Knights had a color associated with them to match their dragon. Lance was blue, Pidge's green, Keith's red, and Shiro was black. Hunk finished his quirk observation before turning to Lance with a tired expression.

"Come on, Lance, give Keith a chance. I don't know if you are but I'm tired of this 'rivalry' you have with Keith and I'm sure he doesn't even know you consider him one." Hunk proposed, looking up at the castle wall spotting the guard tower and gave a thumbs up before continuing his check of the perimeters. Lance followed close behind with a slouch muttering to himself angrily.

"I've given him enough chances and he should know by now of our rivalry."

"You know what I think," Hunk spun around with his hands behind his back and a smirk, "I think you're J-E-A-L-O-U-S." He spelled out. Lance huffed arrogantly, puffing his chest.

"Phft. Me? Jealous of him? Why would I be jealous of him?" Hunk shrugged and left Lance to his own devices, as they passed through the North portion and bumped into Pidge whose arms are full of ancient scrolls from the archives of the castle which she explored occasionally. She raced up to them as if she'd been searching for them, Rover hovering nearby. They were inseparable.

She actually found Rover on a mission nearby enemy castles and hacked into its system causing the drone to become their ally. She's named it Rover and kept it as a personal assistant since then. Pidge wasn't social with the other Knights since she'd prefer working with machines and books over humans anytime.

"Hey guys," She greeted, pulling up her slipping sling bag, "I discovered something really amazing when I was researching the Voltrex." She said excitedly.

"If it doesn't have anything to do with my dragon, I could care less about your discoveries," Lance grumbled irritatedly, walking around her to continue his shift. Pidge quickly spun around to try and stop him, almost dropping her stuff in the process.

"It actually has to apply to all of our dragons," Pidge responded. Lance stopped suddenly interested in what she had to offer. The Blue Knight spun around walking back to her, quickly checking their surroundings to make sure Keith wasn't hiding in the shadows to hear their secrets.

"Keep talking." Hunk nervously watched the two, astounded by the amount of tension radiating off the two. Pidge smirked, adjusting her glasses.

"Well, I've heard how you want to get the upper hand on Keith and I think I've found just how you can."

∴∵∴

"I think he's jealous," Pidge said nudging Hunk as they walked side by side down the large hallways of the castle, heading to the Archives. Hunk chuckled holding a few scrolls for Pidge, as Rover hovered above their heads excitedly as it reflected its owner's emotions. Around them, maids and assistants busily moved from one side of the castle to the other. Though Allura was the one being Coronated, the servants of the castle had a lot of work to get done in the next few weeks.

"Same here or do you think he possibly..."Hunk winked at her, the two shared a look before bursting into laughter. It was amusing to think that the two most stubborn Knights actually held feelings for each other. Hunk was positive that if Lance had the chance to send Keith back to Earth he would do it instantly. They turned the corner, large doors presenting themselves in the distance. While Hunk and Pidge went to grab the rest of her research, Lance was preparing his dragon in the stables.

Rover beeped as it made it in front of the library doors before them. They finally make it to the entrance, Pidge pushing the grand brazen doors open with a flourish.

The Archives were huge with shelves upon shelves filled with books and scrolls everywhere; giant staircase winded from the upper level, which was filled with even more books, to the bottom. They entered the room, passing some of Allura's advisors and Councilman before finding a table hidden towards the back that Pidge had claimed as her own. Stacked on the table were piles of books and journals filled with messy handwriting. A translator device was placed nearby with a book laid open in front of the single chair.

Pidge was a useful asset to the Knights especially since they came from Earth that was completely different from Altea; from her they learned about Alteans way of living. From secrets of the castle to keys for unlocking special skills with the dragons to the ancient and detailed history of Altea, Pidge knew it all. Without her, the team probably would have never been able to discover a lot about Altea, the castle, or their dragons.

Pidge scanned through the pile of books and scrolls, pushing away some loose strands of her from her face. She had said she wanted to cut her hair but with the Coronation coming closer and closer, it had seemed to leave her mind. She would have to do it eventually as she was tired of having to tie her hair up to fight or read. She finally came across the materials she was looking for, dumping the scrolls in her Hunk's hand on the table replacing them with two scroll sand a journal.

"AH HA!" Pidge said lifting a book from under a computer. She had a grin like the Cheshire Cat as she gazed at Hunk who was leisurely looking through some books in the surrounding shelves. He jumped when she tapped his shoulder with a giddy childish look. She flipped through the pages of the book faster than Hunk could process before it was shoved in his face.

"Looklooklooklooklook!" She said excitedly, dancing around with joy. Rover danced around her head happily, blazing lights. Hunk sighed with a laugh and pushed the book out of his face, maneuvering the other scrolls in his hands as he held it to read it.

"Yes, I see." He chuckled before his eyes read over something and widened. He lowered the book from his face mirroring Pidge's excitement."No way."

She nodded furiously, "Yes way!" She yanked the book from his hand slamming it shut. Hunk ran a hand through his hair trying to think back on what he saw.

"This-this could change everything." Hunk exclaimed,"But how does that even work."

"I'm still trying to figure that out," Hunk gave her an uneasy look, "But don't worry I know enough that won't get Lance killed...hopefully." Hunk sighed, just when Shiro said not to make a mess. Pidge picked up a few scrolls from the table, changing her mind that they might be useful.

"Let's go! We have secrets of the Altean Dragons to explore."

∴∵∴

Jealous, phft! Lance thought, stroking the scaly head of Amphitrite, his dragon. Unlike Shiro's dragon, his was covered in deep sea blue scales with white milky-like eyes. Surprisingly, he had the second largest dragon who was friendly for the most part, and very protective of Lance.

Amphitrite purred under his touch, leaning into Lance's touch. She always seemed to be the only person who truly understood Lance in the vast expanse of space without his family. All the other Knights had a calling or a place in the team that made them important but he...he was just there. Making the four turn to five so it sounded more menacing. Ooo scary.

Why am I even here? The dangerous thoughts slowly resurfaced back amongst the waves of distractions he usually had. Why do I even bother? I'll never be good at anything. They would do better without me slowing them down. Look at Pidge, she was the youngest amongst the Knights but that didn't seem to put her at a disadvantage.

She made up for age with intelligence and knack for computer programming. She could hack anything, research and understand whatever was needed and create devices to help them. How about Hunk? He worked alongside Pidge as a mechanic. Not only that but he was also a cook! Twice as talented as Lance even with his big nature. Lance felt bad for thinking these thoughts about his fellow Knights but he just needed a reason to feel better about himself, even if it meant belittling others.

Shiro was the leader, having everything a proper leader needed. He'd gone through hell and back, fought for what he believed was right, and selfless. He was courageous and brave. No wonder he was the leader. He had a fucking robot arm, for damn's sake! He always thought of others first than himself while all Lance did was do stuff that would put him to the advantage. And then there's Keith.

Stupid fucking Keith. The guy who could do everything and Shiro intrusted be the next leader if he wasn't. Keith could speak the tongue of the Galra, whose people have been at odds with the Alteans. He should be called a freak, but when you become friends with the enemy everything is hunky-dory.

He was the most skilled out of the Knights when it came to combat, even defeating their leader Shiro. He was reckless but relentless; no matter what happened even if he could possibly die he would fight till the end. And even in death, he would probably still be fighting.

It just wasn't fair. How come everyone else was so awesomely gifted while he-he couldn't do anything. No matter how hard he tried to be involved, he just ended screwing everything up. He tried to help Pidge with unscrambling a code and what did the screw up do? He fell asleep and his elbow slipped on a key that completely reset the whole code. Pidge kicked him out and had to decipher everything for a full hour!

He tried to help Hunk with some of the mechanics and defenses in the castle and the idiot ended up locking everyone out of the castle for a full week! How much of a mess up could he be? By now tears streamed down his face as he realized how useless he is, laughing pitifully.

And don't even get him started on when he went to the training hall to try and fight against one of the training robots. He was trying to practice like Keith and noticed how his was always in the 'NORMAL' setting, so he decided to change it to 'EXTREME ENEMY" just so he could show off how powerful he was. What a stupid thing to do.

He ended up being unarmed in the first minute and Keith had to step in to save his dumbass. As he was trying to look for his sword so he could join the fight, he wasn't paying attention and the robot came at him for a stab and-and...

Keith jumped in at the last minute saving Lance..but getting himself stabbed. Lance can still remember the sound of his heart breaking in two as he saw Keith get stabbed...for him. His blood on Lance's hands...it's something that will never leave. Ever. Forever engraved in his conscious.

He quickly rushed Keith to a healing chamber but by then the damage was done. He lost a lot of blood and was in pain. They were all lucky that he didn't die but he was in there for almost 48 hours! Lance, too burdened by guilt, stayed outside the chamber the whole time just watching.

And when Keith eventually did wake up, Lance ran. Ran like the coward he was. Lance slammed his fist against the side of Amphitrite who jerked at his sudden action. Trembling, Lance wiped away his tears with the back of his hands as he heard Pidge and Hunk walking outside.

"Hee-" Hunk smiled fell, "Hey, are you okay?" He said worriedly, Pidge also noticing the red of Lance's eyes.

"Yeah. I'm fine." He said, placing on his widest grin"I guess I still get allergies even in Space." He chuckled. Sometimes he thought that if he wore a happy-enough smile. The pain and insecurities would go away.

But it never did.

EDITED

Thanks for reading!