Chapter Text
Keith walked into his next class a few minutes before it started. Lunchbox untouched, he hadn’t felt an appetite after what had just occurred.
After Lance left, Keith had just stood there, rooted to the spot. He’d been too afraid to move, not expecting such a lashing and not knowing why he’d been so mad. It wasn’t that he was afraid of Lance, though. No, he had never been much good with words or interacting with other people, so he wasn’t sure of how to properly express himself, his emotions, to his new boyfriend.
If they even were that anymore?
They had barely been together for a day and had already gotten into a fight. And a bad one from the look of it. Keith wasn’t sure how to handle situations such as this one and he wasn’t sure how to handle Lance. It felt like he was a wave that swept Keith away, denying him a chance to stop or decide where to go. Now he stood stranded on an unfamiliar place, drenched in fear and anxiousness.
“Keith?”
The boy looked up as he entered the room, being greeted by the two students Lance usually hung out with. Pidge had been the one to speak up. “Lance is not with you?”
Keith furrowed his brows, his chest tightening at the question. “He hasn’t come back?”
“No, man, we haven’t seen him since you two went out together.” Hunk chipped in. “I mean, class is starting any minute now so he should be here by now? Did something happen? He’s not at the infirmary, is he.”
Keith cast his eyes down, biting the inside of his mouth. He didn’t want to talk about it and he wasn’t obligated to tell them about what had happened. He hadn’t physically hurt him enough to send him to the infirmary either, so he ignored the questions and went to sit down at his desk.
“You think we’ll find Lance at the hospital?” Hunk whispered behind his hand.
“No. But something seems to have gone wrong.”
Keith could feel his phone vibrating in his pocket, signaling that he had received a text. He ignored it.
Lance didn’t show up for class.
Keith had barely paid any attention to the lesson, too busy mulling everything over in his head to the point where he got a slight headache. When the class came to an end he had decided on what to do next. He needed to find Lance and sort this out.
It was quiet up on the rooftop, only distant voices and birds chirping could be heard from that height. Not that Lance paid any mind to it, too busy being plagued by negative thoughts. Anxiety had decided to take up the stage now as well making Lance tighten the grip on his knees.
Thoughts of failure. Thoughts of himself. Thoughts of Keith.
He had pitied him. He hadn’t seen him as his equal, but something weak. Something he could break if he really went for it. He felt hopeless. After all the effort he’d put into surpassing Keith, it now seemed like a waste. He wanted to prove himself better, but how could he when he wasn’t even given a fair chance.
Lance had lost track of time, his mind stewing in negative thoughts. He hadn’t noticed a figure approaching him until they stood right in front of him.
“Hey.”
Lance looked up to the source of the voice, his brows furrowing.
“What do you want?”
Keith shifted slightly where he stood, looking out to the scenery then back at Lance. “I thought you might have gone home.”
“And worry my mom?” Lance scoffed. “Yeah right. What do you care, anyway? Leave me alone.”
“I do care,” Keith said, doing the contrary of what he’d been asked and taking a seat on the floor next to Lance. “Here.”
This was when Lance first noticed the articles the other boy had been carrying with him. A pink rectangular box with cartoon pictures of strawberries was offered to him. He looked at it for a moment, before looking at Keith as if he had grown a second head. Because, quite frankly, he couldn’t really make sense of what was happening right now.
“I didn’t know which kind you liked so I brought you my favorite,” Keith pressed, shaking the box slightly, signaling for Lance to take it. He did, albeit with a wary look on his face. So now they sat there, neither knowing what to do next, an awkward silence looming over them.
“Do you, um...” Keith started, after a few heartbeats, noticing that he hadn’t moved to open it. “... Like that kind…?”
“Oh, uh... I prefer banana milk but this is good too…” Lance answered, ripping of the straw from the box. Should he thank him? Normally you would thank someone for this, but he was still kinda pissed at him so this was… confusing.
“I...” Keith cast his eyes downward, biting his lip nervously before speaking up.
“I don’t look down at you, for the record. I can’t.”
This made Lance snap his head up, eyes widening. He was about to retort in disbelief, but before he could voice his thoughts, Keith continued.
“You’re too tall.”
Lance was rendered speechless. He couldn’t tell if he was being serious right now or if this was his lame attempt at humor, yet he had said it with such a straight face.
He snorted. Loudly.
“What the...” Lance said in between giggles. “What the hell was that!?” He nudged Keith playfully, unable to stay mad at him when the whole situation was so absurd. Here he had challenged a guy to fight him, twice, stormed off after shouting at his face and now he came looking for him? Offering him strawberry milk of all things?
Keith felt his spirit lift, along with the heavy feeling in his chest. He had been able to cheer Lance up, even going as far as laughing and it spread a warm feeling through his entire body. A smile tugged at his lips and he felt that maybe this wasn’t hopeless after all.
While Lance took a breath to calm down from all the laughing, Keith fidgeted with the box in his hands. His face heating up a bit as he spoke once more.
“You didn’t eat lunch, right?” He avoided eye contact, extending his bento box towards Lance. It was store bought, Lance noted. “If you want to I can share mine with you.”
Lance felt his heart skip a beat, the color on his cheeks darkening to match Keith’s. He wanted to protest but felt his stomach beat him to it, growling loudly and bringing out a small laugh from Keith. Now he just felt silly. This was silly.
“Well, since you’re offering,” he said with a shrug, reaching for the box. “Why are you being so nice to me, though? I haven’t exactly been a gentleman towards you or anything.”
Keith tilted his head. Shouldn’t it be obvious?
“I don’t want us to be on bad terms.” He looked at Lance with sincere eyes, as the boy opened the lid to the box. Their eyes locked, a silence following those words as both simply looked. “So… we good?”
Lance let a moment pass before he put down his chopsticks, extending a hand to the other boy. “Sure. Truce.”
Keith’s smile returned. That was good enough. He took the offered hand in his own and just…. Held it. The intended handshake turned into hand holding. Lance felt himself grow more nervous by the second, feeling awkward once again, but unable to tear his gaze away from the smile on his rival’s face.
“Righ! Uh,” Lance cleared his throat, giving Keith’s hand a small shake before loosening his grip, only to feel Keith grab onto his wrist. “Hey-!”
“Your hand.” Keith stated, having just noticed his bruised knuckles. He had a serious look on his face, brows furrowed as he inspected the wound. “You hit it against a wall. Does it hurt?”
“Huh? Uh, oh.” The taller boy looked down at his hand. It stung a little, since he’d hit it with force, but it wasn’t broken. “Psh, it’s nothing. Just a scratch.”
Keith didn’t seem convinced, his grip tightening slightly on his wrist. “But does it hurt?”
This felt like some sort of interrogation, only instead of being asked where he had been on the sixth of July, Keith was trying to look out for his wellbeing. It was weird.
“No-” He started, but felt the words die in his throat when Keith raised his hand towards his lips, eyes fluttering close, gently placing a kiss on his knuckles.
Lance’s entire body went stiff, eyes widening, looking almost comical as his face flushed red to the tip of his ears. He was also gaping like a fish out of water, no sounds coming out from his mouth, while Keith slowly looked up at him, a slight blush covering his cheeks. He snapped out of it as soon as they locked eyes.
“Uh.. oH WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT!” Lance almost yelled, voice on the verge of hysteria. “IT’S ALL BETTER NOW! HAHA, WOW! THANKS BUDDY!” Really? Now he thanked him? C’mon Lance.
He shoved an eggroll into his mouth to distract himself from his heart, that was beating wildly in his chest right this moment. Calm down, calm down, calm down-!
They both flinched when the bell rang once more, signaling for their last class to start. Keith looked over to Lance who was halfway from eating an octopus shaped sausage. “Are you going to go back to class?”
Lance let out a small huff, finally eating the piece of food and swallowing before answering. “Nah, I think I’m just gonna chill up here until class is over. I don’t really feel like getting lectured by Allura after she finds out I skipped class.”
Keith let out a small laugh, knowing fully well how strict and fearsome Allura could be. He scooted a bit closer to Lance, making himself comfortable. “I can see why. Although we’ll probably hear about it tomorrow.”
“Yeah, well I’ll burn that bridge once I- wait, did you say ‘we’?”
Keith looked fondly out at the scenery. He liked being up here during breaks. It was quiet and normally no one was here to disturb him. He could breathe, not being drowned by all the attention. But, with Lance sitting here beside him, he found that he didn’t mind the company.
“Yeah. We.” He found he liked saying that too. “I don’t really feel like going back either.”
The two boys stayed on the rooftop, sharing a lunch and talking until the bell signaled that classes were over. They waited a few more minutes, not wanting to be caught by Allura on the way to her meeting, before heading down. No one was in the classroom, thankfully, so they could get their bags without a problem.
“So...” Lance started, shoving his hands in his pockets, feeling like he should say something. He had just treated him to lunch and everything. “Thanks, for sharing your lunch with me. I’ll pay you back for it tomorrow.”
Keith raised his eyebrows, shaking his head. “Oh, no, it’s fine I can afford-”
“No, I mean,” Lance cut him off. “I’ll fix you a lunch box tomorrow, alright? S’better than store bought anyway. Then we’re even.”
“Oh!” Keith said, perking up. “Oh.” He brought a hand to his face, averting his eyes and covering his lips, trying to hide the smile that was quickly widening out of embarrassment. He felt so happy right now. “Oh… Okay.”
Lance, starting to get used to his odd behavior thought little of it. Shrugging, he made to walk out. “‘Kay, then I’ll see you tomo-”
“Wait!” Keith halted him, reaching a hand out towards his classmate. “We… Should we exchange numbers?”
The blush had returned to his face, his nerves making his palms sweaty. Would it be too soon to ask about this? Would it throw him off? Lance had been the one that had asked him out, but what if--
“Oh. Yeah, good idea.” Lance said, pulling out his phone and snapping Keith out of his thought process. Keith scrambled to take his out as well. Both boys proceeded to exchange numbers, different intentions in mind once more. Keith thought he was exchanging numbers with his boyfriend, while Lance thought it would be handy to ask if he was allergic to something.
“Alright, now that that’s taken care of I’m gonna head out. Catch you later, Keith.” Lance said with a wave of his hand.
“Bye!” Keith shouted at his back, not moving from his spot. He looked down at his phone, staring at the screen that spelled Lance’s name and number. His nerves had been calmed and replaced with a fluffy feeling that started from his guts and spread through his entire being.
He was happy.
He could feel himself growing fonder of Lance the more time he spent with him, smiling more than he normally did. It stayed on him as he finally texted Shiro back and it stayed with him as he went to change shoes. He couldn’t even be bothered by the envelopes that clogged his locker, throwing them out without a moment of hesitation.
He was really happy.