Chapter Text
Lance didn’t want to admit it, but he didn’t want his time with Keith and Shiro to end. While Keith and Lance were still quite distanced Shiro made Lance feel like family, and he was dreading the day when they would tell him he needed to leave. He knew it was coming, like it always had. Everytime Lance had met people they would turn him away, and he couldn’t deny that it hurt a little bit. He really liked hearing stories about Keith and Shiro’s family, and about adventures they had went on. Sometimes Shiro even went into some embarrassing moments from Keith’s past. Which were personally Lance’s favourite because he had grown rather fond of teasing Keith whenever he got the chance.
A week had passed already, and when Lance was called into the hidden shack from cutting up some firewood Lance started to get anxious. They were going to tell him he needed to move on, and leave. He knew it. He kept replaying the scenario in his head. He was used to being alone, it wouldn’t be that bad. That’s what he kept telling himself, but soon Shiro’s hand was waving in front of his face. He quickly out of his daze and looked at both Keith and Shiro who had concerned expressions. He cleared his throat and let out a small apology, letting Shiro repeat himself.
“I want you and Keith to go on a run, I go with Keith everytime, and now that you’re here I get a break,” Shiro laughed out. Lance let a smile set on his face when his fears were proven wrong and he turned to look at Keith who had a scowl on his face. Lance could tell Keith hated him, and part of him understood, but another part of him was just annoyed. Lance had saved him and his brother, why was he still so bitter?
“Just stay out of my way and we’ll be fine.” Keith got out as he grabbed his knife and gun off the counter, putting them into his belt.
Lance groaned and grabbed his weapons, the walkie talkies and a backpack before following Keith out. He didn’t understand why Shiro thought this was a good idea, but he supposed he should trust the man. Who knew maybe him being alone with Keith might sparking something in their weird, rivalry/enemy relationship.
It was silent as they walked, but it wasn’t an awkward silence, it was peaceful. Lance took in all the greenery that had started to grow up the buildings and a smile made it’s way onto this face. Sure he missed how things used to be, but the beautiful scenery of nature taking back what was rightfully hers always brought something out of Lance. He had grown up in Cuba as a child, surrounded by natural scenery and the ocean, but when his family had moved to one of the southern states for work that had all faded away, so this brought Lance back to some of his childhood memories.
After a few minutes Lance caught himself staring at the back of Keith’s head. His hair was tangled, and greasy and the sight made Lance cringe. He may not be able to keep up his skin routine like he had when things were normal, but he could afford to backpack some shampoo and wash his hair in a lake from time to time. He made a mental note to try and find shampoo if they passed any type of drugstore. It was easy to find, because there were a lot of people who didn’t see it as a necessity, but Lance thought otherwise. He always tried to stay as clean as possible, the last thing he wanted was his face to break out. One always has to look good even in the event of an apocalypse
“I say we split up.” Keith spoke as he stopped in his tracks, causing Lance to bump into him from behind. “We can get more that way.”
Lance raised an eyebrow as Keith turned to look at him, he tensed a bit at the close proximity but he was quick to ease up. He needed to get a grip or something.
“Alright, but take this so we can still talk at least.” Lance quickly reached into the bag and handed Keith one of the walkie talkies and watched him as he walked away. Keith was the opposite of what Lance was usually into. He was an edge lord, he would bet everything he owned that Keith was a MCR fan. When he started to picture it a small laugh escaped him. He wondered if Keith was always this cruel. He frowned a bit when he realized that Keith had probably gone through a lot ot be so untrusting.
He finally started to make his way around the area, and as he did he noticed that a lot of the clothing stores still had clothes lying around. He couldn’t help but walk up to the window and give a peak. Lance could afford to be a little selfish sometimes, besides who didn’t want free clothes. He quickly stepped through the broken glass doors, avoiding the jagged edges and started to take a peak. He went through some of the racks and most of the clothes were for females, but he finally got to the male section and dug through the piles. The store had clearly been raided, but not enough for everything to be gone so Lance wanted to see what he could find. Clothes were important he told himself. This is just as important as what Keith was up to.
Lance sighed after a few minutes of looking there was nothing really of value that Lance could pick up for the others, like jackets or sweaters but something caught the corner of his eye before he exited the store. He looked over and saw a black shirt that had some sort of red marking on it and Lance could distinguish the letters clearly on the shirt. He had literally found an MCR shirt. Lance had to cover his mouth as he jogged over to the shirt that was hung over a bar. He lifted it up and beamed when he realized it was big enough to fit him. He knew exactly who he would give this too.
“Hey, any luck?” Keith asked over the walkie causing Lance to jump a bit. He quickly folded the shirt and threw it in his backpack before exiting the building. He realized he should probably actually help search for useful supplies.
“Uh, nah not yet I only went into the one store though.” He admitted. “What about you, mullet man.” Lance laughed when he heard Keith growl over the device.
“Don’t call me that, make yourself a little useful and come to the drug store down the road I… may...perhaps...need your help.” Keith admitted, almost a whisper towards the end.
“Woah, the great Keith needs my help?” Lance teased, already making his way down the sidewalk.
“Shut up, I think I found something big. “
Lance quickly entered the drugstore, but when Keith was nowhere to be seen he called out for him, only to be met with a small push on his back and a small yell. Lance let out a yelp and turned around, hand on his knife, before realizing it was actually Keith who had scared him. Keith had a small grin on his face and Lance would be blushing if he wasn’t trying to evade a heart attack.
“Keith, don’t do that.” Lance growled, placing a hand on his heart as he turned back to face the back of the store. He could hear Keith giggling and he let out another annoyed groan trying to hide his now apparent blush. He would just have to get Keith back even worse.
“Okay, but seriously I think I’ve found something big,” Keith explained, grabbing Lance’s arm and dragging him to the back of the store, Lance didn’t look away from the spot Keith was holding and gulped a bit. Keith had scared him, and now he was holding his arm. This was odd when did he get so comfortable?
“I think there was some sort of group that was holed up in that backroom,” Keith pointed, his hand falling from Lance’s arm. “There are a few zombies in there, but if we can kill them we get the stash and we are good for months.”
“Okay, but we probably shouldn’t just run in we should have a plan.” Lance proposed, leaning against the stores front counter. “I saw we makeshift a rope out of cloth and then pull it open from afar, then we can see how many there are and we have the time to make a run for it.”
“That’s… not actually a bad idea. But where are we going to get the cloth?”
Lance simply smirked and began to back away from his spot giving keith a second to catch on and follow him. They arrived back at the clothing store and Lance could see the annoyance on Keith’s face from a mile away.
“You came here first didn’t you.” Keith deadpanned, looking at Lance from the corner of his eye. Lance chuckled a bit out of nervousness and quickly started to gather up clothes that could be tied together. It wasn’t long before they were back to the drugstore ready to tug on the cloth to open the door. Lance had the best aim of of the two so Keith was the one pulling. Lance quickly jogged to the door with his gun in one hand and placed his other on the doorknob. He looked at Keith who was grinning a bit and quickly unlocked the door and using a bobby pin he had found. He had learned from his older sisters, because they always used them to break into the liquor cabinet, or the sweets safe. The sweets safe was essential for a household of 8 people.
As the door flew open Lance readied himself for the zombies, but he was shocked when nothing appeared. He looked to Keith with a raised eyebrow and shrugged but when he turned back around he was met with a sharp yell from Keith and a zombie inches from his face. He threw his hands onto the shoulders of the walker and pushed as hard as possible, but all his fingers did were sink into the rotting flesh. He cringed a bit and reached for his gun, but by the time he had gotten it out there was already a knife tip sticking out of the zombies forehead. Causing the pushing to stop. Lance stumbled back and fell landing on his tailbone with a soft thud. He was breathing heavily as he tilted his head back, but he was brought right back into action when he started to see more zombies emerge from the room. There were 5 of them, and when Lance was finally up to help they got through them fairly easy. Once everything was clear both lance and Keith gave a sigh of relief. Lance was still out of breath and after a few moments he felt a hand on his shoulder, and looked back to see Keith giving him a worried look.
“That was a close call, you okay?” Lance eye’s got a little wider at the question and Lance simply shrugged his hand off and gave a small chuckle. His heart was already beating fast the last thing he needed was keith getting in his personal space.
“Nothing I can’t handle.” Lance beamed, finally stepping into the backroom of the drugstore. He could hear Keith scoff, but he ignored it as he started to load his back with the canned food that lined the shelves. Sure Lance had almost got bitten, but they got at least a month's worth of food out of it, so he really couldn’t complain. As he shoved things into his bag he spotted some shampoo on the rack and was quick to snatch it. He was going to force Keith to wash his hair if it was the last thing he did.
“Y’know last time you said that you nearly passed out, and Shiro had to carry you back to our hideout,” Keith laughed packing his bag, Lance huffed and closed his bag Keith was finally starting to get comfortable with Lance, and a part of him was nervous. He was used to a Keith that didn’t want him around and now Keith was here joking with him.
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Keith didn’t know when he had gotten so comfortable with Lance being around, but he made it so easy. He would never admit it but Lance was a really funny guy, and he was really caring. Shiro would sit and tell Lance boring stories and he would sit there with a smile the whole time. It was really endearing and Keith was happy Shiro had someone to joke with. He wasn't exactly the most fun to be around. Sure they could joke because they were brothers, but a new person was probably what Shiro needed.
As they walked back to the cabin Keith could hear Lance humming from behind him, and he didn’t know the song but it was upbeat and it brought a smile to his face. Lance was always so cheerful and it was almost shocking due to the state of the world. Lance wasn’t bitter like other people, and he didn’t have ulterior motives, like Keith had believed a few days ago. Lance had really proven himself in such a short amount of time and Keith found himself enjoying the time they spent together, even if it was seldom.
When they finally got back Shiro was shocked at the turn out of the trip and he gave the two of them a lot of praise. Lance was literally beaming from it and Keith just shook his head at the whole situation. Lance seemed to always get excited when Shiro gave him praise of complimented him and that got Keith thinking. Did Lance have the hots for his brother? At the thought Keith felt a little weird, and tried to push it down but the thought stayed. They spent a lot of time together and Keith could have sworn he heard Lance tell Shiro a story about a past boyfriend a few days ago. He had to be overthinking this. Lance wouldn’t like Shiro would he? He watched as the two joked and he felt his chest tighten. He was really confused with what he was feeling right now. If Lance did somehow like his brother he guessed he would have to be okay with it, but at the same time he didn’t really feel good about the thought.
After a few minutes Keith was met with a strangled laugh and looked over to see Lance blushing and Shiro holding up a black shirt. He furrowed his eyebrows and felt his chest tighten once again, did Lance seriously get Shiro a shirt in that store. Keith looked away and kept his face low, he didn’t want to make his annoyance too obvious.
“I can’t believe you saw this and you’r first thought was Keith.” Keith’s head shot up and he saw that Shiro was holding the shirt towards him, with tears in his eyes from laughing. Lance was beside him hiding his head in his hands and Keith finally took in what the shirt was. It was MCR. In an instant he was up out of his chair and ripping the shirt from Shiro’s hands, cradling it like he was about to lose it forever.
“Holy shit Lance, how did you find this in that shitty store?” Keith asked scanning the shirt. “This is a concert shirt too, oh my god.”
“So you like it?” Lance finally asked, peeking through his fingers.
“Are you kidding, this is going with my blade collection.” Keith beamed.
Keith sent a glare to Shiro when he literally had to cover his mouth he was laughing so hard. His brother just didn’t understand. The blades were collectors items, they were special. He scoffed and folded up the shirt placing it into a chest beside his cot, and looked back to see Lance still hiding his face. He wondered why Lance was still so embarrassed, but he shrugged it off. He was just feeling happy about the shirt he had gotten. And he was even happier that Lance had picked it up thinking about him.
Keith felt his face heat up, and stomach flip a little at the thought, He may or may not be a little bit screwed, and it would only get worse from here.