Shooting Stars

Tuesday, September 9

Lance's POV

Lance's day could only be described by one single word – stressful. He knew that with the auditions being moved to this Thursday, he would have to put a lot of effort into getting his work done, so of course, he pulled an all-nighter to finish the paper, that he'll have to hand in at the and of the week. He could not waste his precious time of the day on that! However, it still had to be done. But Lance isn't a very focused and efficient student, so it took him longer than expected. And quickly the clock turned from 1 am to 7 am. Nothing Lance didn't manage before, but still not great either. The only problem this time was that on his bus-ride to college he just fell asleep and didn't wake up for another hour. He ended up at the completely different side of the city, then he needed to be and consequently had to take a different bus in the opposite direction, which he almost missed on top of that, too. When he finally arrived at his wanted destination, he missed his two first classes of the day, which itself was extremely annoying. If Lance skipped classes, he wanted to do it at least intentionally. Nevertheless, he still had a relaxing time in his break...wait did he just say relaxing? He meant stressful! Eating was impossible, due to his lack of time for anything, because now he did not only have to practice his monologue, but also catch up on what he missed in the morning. How could one person be so unlucky in one day? At least there was something he could look forward to today. After his last class he would meet up with Allura and she would help him with his choreography for auditions and what's more, he got the best room in the whole school reserved for it (it sure was a pain to get it).

So that is how Lance found himself in front of his practice room together with Allura, and not being able to go inside, because it was currently being used… without permission. Sure the two of them were about 10 minutes later there than they should be according to the plan, but that was just downright unfair. Could this day get even worse?

"Oh come on! Seriously?! This is unbelievable!" Lance scoffed "The audacity these people have! Such assholes! It is a commonly known fact, that this room is never not taken by anybody. You can't just randomly go in here, without checking the board.". Allura tried to calm him down, even though she knew that was probably impossible "Maybe they really didn't know anything about that "rule". Oh maybe it's one of the new students! We can't be mad at our newbies!" she noted sweetly. Lance still looked skeptical at the door and then remarked "Even a freshman would know that! They get taught that stuff in orientation week, don't they?". "Maybe they didn't, let's just go in and tell th-" Allura suddenly cut herself off mid-sentence and put her finger to Lance's mouth, as to tell him that he should be quiet. Lance obviously curious, moved her head away and opened his mouth to ask what was going on, which Allura interrupted quickly "Listen, I think that is Keith and Shiro.". So Lance put his ear against the door trying his hardest to make out the individual voices. And Allura was completely correct. That certainly was the two of them singing "Goodbye" (by Aaron Tveit), constantly switching between singing together and going on alone. One of them, probably Keith, was also playing the piano. It in fact sounded very nice, but Lance could really not bring himself to enjoy the good sounds right now, because he knew that both of them knew very well how the practice-room-system worked.
So Lance furiously moved to rip open the door but was unexpectedly held back by Allura's arm. "What are you doing Allura? They know the rules! They are stealing my time to practice!" Lance explained in a very impatient manner. Allura on the other hand had an expression that basically screamed stunned. "Let them at least finish Lance! If not for them, do it for me… they just sound so good!" she pleaded. Lance grumbled at that but stopped his earlier motion. She quietly thanked him and they proceeded to listen to the music. Lance leaned up against the wall and sighed. "At least they made up, I wouldn't be able to stand another day with Keith joining us for lunch" he whispered. But deep down he knew that of course wasn't why he was glad about them being on good terms again, after their fight. Honestly, it was just good to see them both happy, they were quite the opposite whilst they were arguing. And Lance fully understood that. It never sits right with him either, when he fights with his brothers. But he never made it as obvious as Keith did, when he was feeling sad. Keith is super closed off, but sometimes, when he is very emotional, you can read him like an open book. Then again Lance definitely likes it more when he can see what Keith is thinking or feeling because for whatever reason it is very important to him to understand the raven-haired boy, even if it's just small parts of his characteristics. Keith is just interesting to him. And he is not going to lie, that this is the reason why he is occupying his thoughts so often lately. But that seriously needed to stop. He could not waste his time thinking about a guy he did not even like that much. That was just plain stupid, and Lance would not let himself continue like this. He needed something else to focus on. His eyes wandered around the hallway but nothing caught his eye. So he turned back to the door, Allura was still standing in front of enjoying the little music-only concert she got presented. That caused an idea to form in Lance's head, why shouldn't he make it a full-on concert with a special viewing of the artists? So he grabbed the handle of the door and turned it. Allura tried to stop him, with a shocked look on her face, but once she realized that he only wanted to open a small gap, so they could actually see what was happening, she looked even happier than before.
Lance now kneeling on the floor, got a good view of the piano. He was right with his prediction, that Keith was the one playing it. Shiro was walking around the room as he sang a couple of lines by himself. But even though one's attention normally goes straight to the singer, Lance's eyes seemed to have different plans. They shifted right back to Keith. And Lance could confidently say, that he understood why they did. What a sight to behold. He could only see Keith's face, but that was enough for him already. His eyes were sparkling brightly from the light falling into through the window-front, his lips were slightly mouthing the lyrics and his long hair moved smoothly along with the motion of his head. But he looked especially beautiful because he was smiling. Something Keith did not do too often, then again should do more. Lance could not do anything else but stare. That was right when Lance realized the flaws of his plan. Watching the person he didn't want to think about wasn't his most intelligent move. But he could say for sure, that it would not be the last time he would act like this around Keith. Now he just needed to figure out why?
Allura, always the observer, totally saw how Lance was utterly gone staring at the younger of the two men. And she also could make out the blush on Lance's face, so of course, she could not leave this uncommented. "Like what you see, loverboy?" she asked with a giggle. Lance just turned to her in shock and stuttered out a few words, but no real sentence wanted to leave his mouth, which made Allura laugh even harder. That didn't go unnoticed by Shiro and Keith though. Both stopped singing and playing immediately after hearing the unfamiliar sound. Lance, not wanting them to see that they were watching them did the next best thing he could think of and stormed into the room, putting on the maddest face he could form right now.
"Mullet, don't you know how to read a fucking plan at the blackboard? It is my training time! You just took my special room from me, without even asking for permission. Who do you think you are? Really did nobody ever teach you how to...ehm… well did no one ever teach you manners or something?" Lance barked but was failing to uphold his angry tone throughout his scolding. Keith looked at him blankly and just shrugged "Well you didn't show up. And when I came here there was nobody in sight.". "That excuses nothing," Lance said snappy, but Keith still showed no emotion and made no move to apologize either. "Okay. I really don't care."Keith remarked as he stood up from his seat at the piano. "Wait Keith, before you leave! I wanted to say that it was a good choice to audition for Kayden! I saw it and was immediately over the moon. I worried you would sell your talents short again, but this role fits you so well. If you need any help for auditions, just ask me!" Allura chimed in. Keith turned to her, with a smile (which in Lance's opinion looked more sour than sweet) "Thank you, but I don't think-", before he could turn her offer down further, Lance interrupted him "Wait, wait, wait, wait Kayden? Didn't you say you were auditioning for the ensemble? Did you just plainly lied to us all?" What kind of move would that even have been? First, he tells everyone to drop the topic and snaps at them for telling him to maybe try a different, bigger role and now he just chose the main part. What the hell?

"Lance, that would be my fault. Keith didn't lie to you. He did want to audition for the ensemble, but I put his name down elsewhere without his consent. It was a bad move of mine, but I cannot take it back and Lotor won't change the audition-plan anymore." Shiro explained calmly and Keith then added, that he now decided to just move along with what happened and that they were all probably right anyways. Something didn't sit right within Lance with that statement. It didn't seem like Keith actually meant it, but Lance

would just let it slide. "Why do you care though Lance?" Keith asked before he left the room. "Of course I do!" He replied, at which Keith just raised an eyebrow. "Well I mean I don't care care. But I do care! You know?", "Sure," Keith said with a smirk and then added quietly "Have fun practicing." before he went out of the door completely. Shiro and Allura exchanged some kind of strange look before he followed his brother out of the door.

Lance stood there for another 40 seconds or so just staring at the now-closed door before he grabbed his bag and placed it at the side. Allura was already plucking in her phone to play some music over the speakers. They first did a short warm-up, before they started with the hard stuff. Lance was so lucky that Allura still owed him a favor, so he could get her to choreograph something for him. Usually, at auditions, everybody has to dance the exact same thing, but this time, they wanted a special twist to it, which is why everyone who wants to play a role that has to dance a solo or a duet, has to perform a personal dance-performance. And even though thinking of new choreographies is one of Lance's favorite things in the world, he just didn't have any time left on his schedule. So he got Allura to help him, under the condition that she won't be biased during auditions and that it was kept a secret with what in particular she aided the brown-haired boy. She really thought of the whole situation as dreadful, but Lance had to go through something equally as dreadful when he earned this favor, so it was only fair.
"Okay Lance, I prepared a variation of a dance I never actually got to perform. At least now it will be brought to good use. I think it will fit you and your role well. I will dance it once for you now, and then we will go through each individual step together, which we will just piece together in the end. Alright?" Allura said in a strict but still warm voice (her coach-Allura-voice) "Yes Ma'am!" Lance exclaimed enthusiastically. So they did exactly what Allura just explained and moved through each and every different pose and movement. Since both of them are quite gifted with good posture and dance-skills that process went along without many complications. Just like that after half an hour, they were through about two-thirds of the dance. Lance was currently occupied with holding a rather complicated pose, where he had to balance himself on one of his feet, whilst the other leg was raised up in the air, with his one arm holding it in place and the other one spread off the side. It wasn't a new move, but he just had to hold it for a very long time, because Allura couldn't seem to be satisfied with the result, constantly pointing out new things that were wrong with how Lance did it "Yes your elbow over here is exactly in a 90° angle, okay? Oh and you cannot forget about your other arm, even if it is not doing anything special." she mumbled as she made circles around him, inspecting every inch of his body, and continuing with finding new mistakes every round. Lance on the other hand was sweating worse with each passing second. This woman definitely was a perfectionist if you ever met one. "Before I forget it, Lance, I have a question about Keith and you," Allura asked as indifferent as one could say it. But that whole question got Lance to almost lose his balance. "What do you mean 'Keith and me'? There is no Keith and me!" he tried to explain calmly, and failing miserably. Allura just chuckled and continued "Well if you get to play George and he gets to play Kayden you know what that means, right? These two are a couple...". That hadn't even occurred to Lance. He knew he would have to play the whole relationship part with another boy, which was completely fine because he is bi, but Keith of all people? That was too much for Lance's poor brain and after a huge blush made itself visible on his cheeks, he stumbled and fell to the floor. That caused Allura to laugh hysterically at him. Lance only looked at her with an embarrassed and annoyed stare, so she helped him back up, trying to hide her giggles. "Oh Lance I'm sorry, I didn't want you to fall!" she said ironically with a huge grin on her face. "Haha, very funny 'Lura." Lance groaned. "No but seriously, don't worry about it so much. It might be weird to play a loving couple at first, but you'll for sure get the hang of it fastly. And you know what? It worked out great for Romi and me, too. We once played a couple and ever since then we are best friends!" She exclaimed encouragingly. "Oh yes "Besties"… I got you 'Lura." Lance said and wiggled his eyebrows up and down. Once Allura realized what he implied, she pushed him right back on the floor with a satisfied smirk.