Keith groaned subtly into his palm, silently cursing the universe for doing this to him. He was having the worst day ever.

And maybe that was a little dramatic, but he seriously did not care. Say what you will about his imagination, but he found it genuinely impossible to think of a worse situation to be in right now. His only hope was that a wild space rock would shoot out of the sky and hit him smack in the face.

Okay, so he was still being dramatic. But weren't princes supposed to be dramatic? His brother was, so why should Keith be any different? He felt it was his duty.

Besides, even if it wasn't, he had the right to be dramatic. Lady Heinford seemed hell-bent on ruining his day... and quiznak, it was working.

A soft whisper from his right side stirred the prince from his thoughts.

"Your highness?"

Keith glanced up, and met eyes with Shiro.

"What?" He asked ever-so-eloquently.

Shiro offered a sympathetic smile. "Lady Heinford has just excused herself-"

"She's leaving? Thank the stars!" Keith managed a grin, his spirits raised considerably.

"-for a brief meeting before her trip before they depart after lunch," Shiro finished.

Keith deflated, falling back into his seat. His forehead dropped onto the edge of the table a little harder than necessary. He knew he was being very informal, but for once he didn't really care. He had been on best behaviour all day, surely his guards would understand.

And it appeared they understood more than he expected...

"If it makes you feel any better, Your Highness," he heard one of them speak up. Based on their playful tone, he assumed it was Matt. "I put poison in one of the drinks. I meant for it to be Lady Heinford's, but I'm not sure."

The prince snorted. He lifted his head from the table and reached for his goblet. With a smirk on his face, he muttered, "The way this lunch is going, I hope it's mine," and downed the rest.

The rest of the guards lost it, choking on their mouthfuls and spitting wine across the table.

"Keith, please," Shiro chuckled. "Just hold on for three more hours, okay?"

"Wait, three hours?" Keith spluttered. "You said she was leaving after lunch!"

"Yes. It's around twelve now, and lunch will take about another hour or so, and then after that, at three, Lady Heinford is leaving."

"Oh for the sake of Quiznak!" Keith groaned. "Are you certain we can't leave now? I'm sure the Pods will be fine. Right?" He resented the desperation in his voice.

Shiro sighed, and Keith was slightly comforted to note that the older man had the decency to look apologetic. "I'm sorry, Keith. But the Pods cannot fly in this weather."

"Well," a sly voice interjected. "Technically speaking, the Pods can't fly in any weather. They hover."

Shiro let out a heavy breath through his nose. "Not helpful, Matt."

Keith, however, was a little busy with the realisation that Matt's voice sounded drastically different to the one that had made the joke about poisoning Lady Heinford's wine. So if it wasn't Matt who said that, then who?

The rest of lunch was just as awful as the beginning. Lady Heinford returned, and brought with her all the condescendingly cold half-smiles that the prince had come to absolutely detest. Each time their eyes met across the room, it took more and more effort to mask his growing loathing for the woman.

At an agonising snail's pace, the time ticked on. Poor Keith was certain that his brain would snap under the tension of refraining from throwing his fork across the table at Lady Heinford. But eventually, the old bat declared that she had eaten her full and stood from the table, offering the group a short and shallow bow. Begrudgingly, the prince returned the pleasantries.

The moment the door closed behind her, Keith was turning on his heel. Despite Shiro's protests, he stormed from the room. "If you need me I'll be upstairs," he threw over his shoulder as the darkened hallway swallowed him.

Back in his room fifteen minutes later, Keith threw himself onto his canopy bed. For a moment, he just lay there.

Thinking, seething.

Replaying the entire ordeal of the last two days over in his mind. His heart was heavy, his head bursting with thoughts. He needed to vent, or else he might explode.

With a sigh, he pushed himself up onto his elbows and reached for his nightstand where a leather-bound notebook lay waiting...

LANCE'S POV:
Once Keith had disappeared upstairs, Shiro gathered the guards around in the living room, which was probably as big as half of Lance's house.

"Okay listen up," Shiro began. "Prince Keith needs a break and we have the house to ourselves-"

"Oooo party!" Somebody whispered excitedly. Just because they were all supposed to be reliable, mature - okay so they were supposed to be mature, but not everybody gets what they want - guards didn't mean they didn't know how to have fun.

"Yes, party. But only small. Just us five, the prince and some games. I want Acxa and Lance on alcohol, Matt on blankets and Adam, you're with me. We're getting snacks." Shiro listed.

Lance snickered. "Alright then, but no snogging in the pantry you two." And then he took off in direction of the cellar before Shiro could retaliate. Acxa was quick to follow him.

Down in the cellar were rows upon rows of shelves, each bearing multiple bottles of expensive alcohol.

"Hey Acxa, should we take more of a beer route or a wine route?" Lance quizzed as he pulled a bottle off the shelf, inspecting the label.

"Take a bit of both. We've got nothing to lose." She said.

"Alrighty then!" Lance grinned and tucked a bottle under his arm before moving on to the next shelf.

Between the woman whom Lance considered a 'picky drinker' and Lance, who was more of a, 'oh-this-looks-good,-chuck-it-in' kind of guy, it took forever to decide on what to take. But when they finally did, both parties had been satisfied and they emerged to their fellow guards setting up.

Already there were piles of blankets arranged around the room in a circle, so everybody could face each other and the furniture had been turned in so people had a bit of freedom to change spaces if need be.

"Quiznack, you two took a while," said Matt, dropping a pile of pillows on the ground.

"Yeah well, Miss Picky over here couldn't make up her mind between the Cabernet Sauvignon or the Chardonnay," Lance grumbled, carefully putting the bottles down on the table.

Acxa scowled at Lance, "Just because you have no taste."

Adam came up behind both Acxa and Lance and slung his arms over their shoulders. "Ladies, ladies, you're both pretty, moving on. We need to hurry up, Shiro's gone to get the prince," he said before retreating, dumping an armful of snacks in the center of the blanket circle Matt made that he'd stuffed in his jacket.

The sound of footsteps caught everybody's attention and thus they scrambled into position on the blankets, trying to portray a relaxed aura. That is until Matt muttered "Shit! We forgot cups." He scrambled to his feet and out the door just as Shiro walked in the opposite side with Keith.

The Prince stopped for a moment and marveled at the scene before him, the guards hired to protect him around the clock wearing casual clothes and spread out lazily among the nest of blankets on the floor.

"Welcome to the club." Shiro grinned, nudging Keith forwards until the prince moved his feet and sat at on one of the blankets. He was directly across the circle from Lance. Shiro sat down next to him and Adam moved from his place beside Lance to join his fiancé, leaving the guard on his own.

Lance pouted and folded his arms. "Alright. Okay. I see how it is."

Keith snorted quietly and Adam poked his tongue out. Speaking of Adam, "Hey Adam, aren't you hot in that jacket?"

Adam adopted a cheeky expression. "Well, Shiro certainly seems to think so," The mentioned Head Guard spluttered, turning red and those around him cracked up laughing. That was the moment Matt chose to walk in. He took one look at the group, shrugged and sat down, next to Lance.

"Ahh, cups fantastic." Lance grinned, plucking a plastic cup from Matt's grasp and making a beeline for the alcohol. Heavens knew he could do with some sometimes. Keith wasn't far behind him, his own cup in hand. Lance held the alcohol above his head playfully. "Are you sure a pretty prince like you is supposed to be drinking?"

Keith scowled at the taller boy. "If anybody here needs a drink, it's definitely me."

"But can you hold your liquor?" Lance taunted, leaning down to get in Keith's face. Maybe that wasn't something he should do as a guard, but if the Prince didn't like it he could back away himself.

"I guess you'll have to find out yourself," Keith smirked and snatched the bottle out of Lance's hand, hurriedly pouring himself a drink and taking a deep draught from it. The Prince blinked and stumbled slightly at the sudden attack of alcohol on his body and Lance laughed at him. Keith huffed and sat back down next to Shiro.

Once drinks were distributed, Shiro clapped his hands to gain everybody's attention. "Okay. Games time. We have three options," Shiro held up three fingers and counted them off as he spoke. "We have the generic Truth or Dare, Never Have I Ever and Spin the Bottle."

Adam grinned and leaned into Shiro's side, looking up at the Head Guard. "I don't know, Truth or Dare sounds pretty good to me." Adam winked suggestively.

"To you two and you two only." Matt, the ever single man grumbled.

"Yeah well I don't know about anybody else, but I need to let loose and Never Have I Ever sounds like a great way to start to me." Keith groaned, reaching to refill his glass already. "I don't care how un-royal of me it is for me to say it but I am over Lady Heinford."

Shiro looked to Lance and then at Acxa and finally at Matt. "What about you guys?"

"Never Have I Ever sounds good to me. Especially if we end up playing Spin the Bottle later," said Acxa. Matt nodded his head in agreement, saying a little alcohol to begin with couldn't hurt.

"Lance? How about you?"

Lance shrugged. "Whatever Princey wants to play I suppose."

"Never Have I Ever it is then!"

And so they launched themselves into the game, questions starting out light and cautious, everybody becoming familiar with each other's limits and going from sober to tipsy to drunk and that's when they delved into the more personal things. Lance was still only borderline drunk, refusing to drink too much given the forbidden places his thoughts often wondered when alcohol was involved. When Shiro called for the next game to begin, Keith took the moment to get up and make a bathroom run and when he came staggering back in he plopped down next to Lance.

"Yo wassup ma homie-gee?" Lance asked, putting on a dramatic flare.

"Lance. I swear on my crown that if you ever call me that again, I will personally cut your dick off." Keith's words were slurred slightly but the message was clear.

But as per usual, Lance ignored that warning and shrugged. "Actually, it looks more like a tiara to me."

Keith frowned and Lance noticed how his eyebrows scrunched together and his nose wrinkled as he did so. "Does not." Keith grumbled.

"What ever you say princess." Lance grinned, receiving a light slap on the arm in return.

The next game they played was Spin the Bottle and the rules were simple. You go around in a circle and take turns spinning the bottle. Whomever the bottle lands on, you had three options. 1) You make out with them for five minutes then and there, 2) You make out in the closet in the next room over so it's dark and you have privacy or 3) You deny and have to face the forfeit, which normally included a lot more drinking.

Whenever it was Keith's turn, Shiro refused to let Keith participate in half the game, making the prince take the forfeit instead of making out with the bottle's chosen victor. "The prince's honour must not be tainted by us lowly guards." Were his words. Yes, Shiro was indeed pretty drunk and of course, if the bottle ever landed on Adam, there was some kind of distraction caused so the Head Guard could nudge the bottle away.

Lance could tell Keith was becoming with frustrated with Shiro's reasoning for not letting him play properly from the exaggerated sighing and wistful looks towards the others. It was particularly hard to ignore when Keith slumped into Lance's side to get the point across that he didn't mind having his 'honour tainted' as Shiro put it. Though Keith, in his increasingly drunken state, didn't seem to mind tangling his legs with Lance's pointedly, however Lance on the other hand was pretty sure he was becoming a fire truck. The guard looked down at the Prince to see if he noticed the effect he was causing, but Keith was too busy staring cross-eyed at the bottle to care.

The bottle landed on Shiro and Adam had spun it - Lance could've sworn Adam spent hours practicing to make sure the bottle landed where he wanted it to because it had landed on Shiro his last three turns - and the two had no qualms against making out then and there, right in front of everybody.

And then it came back to Keith's turn. Lance watched cautiously, knowing that Keith's anger at being left out was reaching boiling point. He spun the bottle and Lance anxiously watched it spin around a few times before it was slowing.

Slower.

Slower.

Stop.

The bottle landed on Lance.

Keith tilted his head upwards, giving Lance a sly smile that made Lance's heart jump.

"Oh no no no," Shiro slurred. "Forfeit buddy."

"Shiroooo." Keith whined, not moving from his position, which was ridiculously close to Lance who was watching it play out with baited breath.

"If you weren't drunk you wouldn't be doin' this." Shiro said, clumsily getting to his feet, much to the complaint of Adam.

"But I ammm drunk and I'm guy." Keith giggled although he stopped short when he registered what he said, blinking in confusion. His face scrunched up again in confusion. "I mean I'm gey."

"Spit it out already." Matt complained, wanting to get on with the game.

So Keith pulled away from Lance. He pointed first at himself and then at Lance and huffed, "BOYS!"

There was dead silence.

The slurred words made sense to Lance now and it all snapped into place.

He meant gay.

Keith meant gay.

As in, he was gay.

And it wasn't a bad thing. Lance didn't mind at all. It was just.... a bit of a surprise.

Shiro ambled over to where Lance and Keith sat and tugged on Keith's arm. "I think you've had enough for one night, buddy."

Shiro shot Lance an apologetic look before he and Adam helped Keith up the steps, the Prince complaining the entire way.

All Lance could thinks was... well...

What the fu-

~~~~

Hello, hello! Co-written chapter by a couple of co-writing ladies. I think you can tell where I start writing because it gets considerably worse (I just can't write happy stuff can I?). Sorry it's a little late. I'll hand you all off to Lucidame now.

Peace,

BTSWD
Borntosingwithdrama

Heya, Lucidame here!

So... surprise! We co-wrote this one! Also surprise! They got drunk lol

Sorry this chapter's late. I'm terrible with time management and wasn't really in the mood to write anything light-hearted this week.

But anyways, hope you enjoyed the drunken gay antics in this chapter, and I sincerely hope y'all are enjoying this story, and thank you for reading it! Comments and votes are welcome and appreciated!

Until next time!
-underappreciatedtree <3🌲