Chapter Text
Night 8
Lance
Blue eyes widened to the size of saucepans as Lance prepared himself for the onslaught of fists. He might’ve been prepared physically, but mentally he was not ready for Keith to jump out of Shiro’s arms and straight up pounce at him. But before fingerless gloved hands could make contact with his face, Lance heard Keith yell and plummet to the ground. He stared, awestruck, at the power and strength of the person who could calm a wild beast. Silver hair moved out of the way to a pissed off Allura who then grabbed Lance and flipped him to his back with a loud thud as well. No doubt the people on the first floor must be wondering about what the hell was going on.
Lance and Keith sat up from their spots on the ground simultaneously and began licking their wounds and pride. Lance was amazed by how neither of them spoke, fearful for what may come from Allura. She paced in front of them like a princess deciding a punishment for thieves. Her sandals stopped in front of them and she pulled them both up by the ears in record-breaking time. “What were you two thinking? Why are you fighting like schoolchildren?”
“Well, technically speaking we are school children,” Lance grinned. Allura, not impressed dropped them both to the ground. Hard. The boy yelped and brought his legs to his chest, deciding to just stay on the ground.
“What is your problem?” Allura demanded. “Do you two know each other from high school?” Keith looked at Lance who glared at him which made him glare back. They shook their heads at the same time. “Then why must you fight? We’ve only begun our year here and I won’t stand by and let you two constantly bicker for the rest of the year. Not only am I doing this for the two of you, but I am doing it for Pidge, Hunk, Shiro, and myself.”
Lance looked to the rest of the group who had disappointed looks on their faces. Even Hunk looked a little disheartened at his roomie’s behavior. Lance frowned and shook his head before getting up. His face softened and he reached a hand down for Keith. “I’m sorry...Do you think we can restart?”
Keith
Narrowing his eyes and furrowing his brow, Keith grabbed Lance’s hand and allowed himself the help off the floor. Initially, his reaction to Lance’s apology was, “All this was your fault anyway? I only felt awkward! You’re the one who hated me for it!” However, that was not what this situation called for.
“Yeah, that’d be nice.”
Lance’s face looked remarkably soft and tender at those words. Keith figured Lance must really hate fighting. Unfortunately for Keith, he was all too used to it.
“Great!” Lance plastered that big, goofy grin back to his face “Because I want to win the biggest thing they have!” He marched confidently to the door, scooping up one of Hunk’s and Pidge’s arms on either side along the way. Pidge protested, then Lance said something about being a gremlin before they were too far to hear.
Oh no. Time to face Shiro. Keith’s chest hurt and he could feel every limb get heavier as the seconds ticked on.
“You know I have to tell the school about this.”
Keith nodded, balling up his fists.
“I’m just disappointed is all.”
Fuck. That comment tore through Keith’s conscious, obliterating all feelings calm. Biting down on his lower lip, he forced the tears welling up in his eyes to stay put, almost daring one to escape and roll down his cheek.
“This is the first strike. You have two more, got it?” Shiro joined the rest of the group, but Allura lingered.
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah,” Keith said while turning back toward the dorm rooms.
“Wait,” Allura grabbed his shoulder. “You should still come with us.”
Keith scoffed, “No way in hell,” and took another step away from her.
Allura planted herself in his path, arms at her hips and told him that there was no way he was getting by her. Last time, she took him by surprise and Keith knew that he could take her. (At least, that was what he told himself.) Keith crossed his arms and sighed. With a twirl of her finger, Keith complied and turned back toward the door to leave. What else was he going to? Besides, he would have to face everyone eventually. They all did share the same doom.
Lance
The campus wide carnival impressed Lance. His high school had its fair share of mini festivals, but none were as big as this one. They actually had rides and a ferris wheel going and the stuff was free for the students. Even food! Without hesitation Hunk, Pidge, and him all grabbed some free hot dogs and cotton candy.
“I can’t wait to wreck you scrubs,” he winked at his pals (well he wasn’t completely sure if Pidge found him to be a friend yet, but she was a friend to him). Pidge rolled her eyes and lead them to the ring toss table.
“Wanna put your money where your mouth is?” she challenged while finishing her hot dog. “I’m not really one for bragging, but I’m a pro at ring toss.” Lance scoffed at this. No one was good at ring toss. The trio each grabbed a set of rings and prepared themselves at the counter. On the count of three they threw the colored rings simultaneously.
“No fucking way,” Lance’s mouth was agape as he saw that the only ring to make it was Pidge’s. Pidge merely smirked at him and threw the rest of her rings. Each one made it snug around a bottle neck. Hunk and Lance both screamed while Pidge claimed her prize of a large green lion.
“Told ya I was a pro,” she said and flaunted over to Allura to show her the cute lion. Lance pouted at Hunk who gently pushed him with a bright smile.
‘Who knew? She kicked our asses though.” Hunk looked around the stalls and his eyes widened. He quickly brought Lance closer to him and whispered. “See that girl over there?” Lance looked in the direction nudged at and saw a girl with a short bob haircut, and a rich skin color. “We have ethnobotany together. Her name’s Shay and she’s really nice.”
Lance’s eyebrows rose and wiggled, “You should go over and talk to her. She looks lonely.” Hunk looked away to hide his blush and shifted nervously.
“I-I don’t know man. We just met and I don’t want to be bother.” Not having any of his best friend’s excuses, Lance called over for Shay. “Lance! What are you do-aah hi Shay.” Hunk’s face flushed at seeing Shay who tilted her head to the side.
“Hi Hunk. Are you ok? You look a little unwell?” Lance smiled at the two. Hunk was right, she’s really cute. Before he could be forced into a conversation, he bolted and made way for the opposite side of the carnival. He grabbed another stick of cotton candy, letting the sugary confection melt on his tongue, and wondered what to do next before the night was up.
Keith
Keith made his way to the carnival along with Shiro and Allura, but when they arrived Shiro saw someone and run up to him. Allura’s thoughts seemed elsewhere as she and Keith walked throughout the booths.
“Do you want to join Shiro and the guy he was with?” Keith asked.
“Yes. Matt and Shiro are wonderful. Would you like to join?”
“No, I think I’m going to get some cotton candy, but I’ll meet up with you guys later!” Keith had no intention of meeting with the trio, but did want some cotton candy. Backtracking a couple booths, Keith picked up a bright pink floof of cotton candy and nibbled at it while wandering around. He didn’t blame her for wanting to leave; Keith wouldn’t want to be around himself either. Feeling awkward, he made his way toward the game section.
Just as Keith was about to decide that the carnival was useless anyway, a flash of blue accompanying a robust laugh caught his attention. Gross. Lance flirting with a girl forced bile into Keith’s throat. Pushing it down, Keith makes his way over there. This dick has been putting him through hell. Time for a little fun.
Keith made his way over to Lance and the girl in the varsity jacket as Lance was turned toward a game. He wasn’t half bad. He was actually pretty good at it; he had a knack for hitting those targets. Stopping to watch, Keith didn’t even notice when his breath caught and heart stopped. Lance moved with fluidity and grace which he didn’t seem to possess at any other time. Normally, Lance was too busy tripping over his own limbs to look graceful. Yet, in that moment, Keith could have sworn that he had never witnessed such joy on another person’s face and such beautiful concentration with just a tug of a finger. The way he smiled with such ease immediately removed any thoughts Keith might have once had and replaced them only with thoughts of him.
“I won!” Keith was immediately disillusioned at the proclamation. Shoving a massive bite of cotton candy in his mouth, Keith scowled at Lance. “Here you-” Lance looked around. “Where’d Nyma go?” Lance’s face fell on Keith. “Here,” he spat, shoving the alien plushie he had just won into Keith’s face. Slowly, Keith allowed Lance to hand him the plushie. They both treated the poor green thing as though it would blow up at any time- Lance like he wanted to get away, and Keith like if he wasn’t gentle, for once in his life, it would kill him.
Lance began to walk away and before he realized what he was doing, Keith called out, “Wait!”
Turning around with eyebrows raised, Lance said, “yeah?”
“Uhh…” Keith panicked. Dammit, what should he say? He didn’t plan this far ahead. “It doesn’t have to be awkward like this between us. Almost everybody does it, okay? You don’t need to freak out around me.” Keith was most definitely freaking out as these words spilled out of his mouth. “It’s not like I’m going to tell everyone and they’re suddenly gonna hate you. Everyone loves you.” And it pisses me off, he thought. “Can we please just get over it already?”
Lance’s face, which started out as a glare, softened up and so did the rest of his tense body. “So, you’re really not going to tell anybody?” Keith nodded and the dark skinned boy sighed. “Thank God. I mean, yeah everyone does it, but I was more embarrassed that you had to hear it. We should probably try to figure something out so that doesn’t happen again…” He ran a hand through his short hair, ruffling it up even more in the process. “If you want, maybe we can talk about it, and calculus, over Starbucks?”
“Yeah, wanna meet up between classes on Monday?”
“I have class at 10, then a break.”
“Cool, ‘cause I get off for the day at 10:50 so we can meet there at 11.”
Lance gave a big smile and plucked off some of Keith’s cotton candy with a wink before running off, “see you then!”
“Oh God. What did I just agree to?” Keith thought. “And why wasn’t I more pissed about someone stealing my cotton candy?!” Keith hugged his new alien buddy to his beating chest and made his way back to his room.
The second he got back, that alien plushie was catapulted into the corner of his closet. “Stupid Lance,” he mumbled. Keith tried to figured out what exactly made that boy so infuriating, but couldn’t quite place it.
A knock at the door made Keith realize he had been pacing.
“Shiro!”
“Hey, where’d you go earlier? Allura thought we’d all meet up again.” Shiro leaned against the doorframe.
“Sorry, I kinda saw Lance, and we talked for a bit.”
Shiro’s eyes widened. “Really? How’d that go? I don’t need to fill out another report, do I?”
“No, no, nothing like that.” Keith felt his face get a little warmer, but wasn’t sure why. He decided the school was skimping out on the AC. “I actually think we can get along.”
“That’s good to hear considering you wanted to kill him a couple hours ago,” said Shiro with a smirk.
“Don’t get me wrong, I still want to punch him in his perfect goddamned face, but-”
“Perfect?”
Shit.
“No, I mean, he still pisses me off, but it’s not like I’m going to hurt him or anything. Don’t worry, okay?” Keith fidgeted with the end of shirt. “Look. I have a lot of stuff to do tonight, so I’ll see you later.”
“Ri-ight.” Shiro winked. “See ya tomorrow!”
Keith closed the door behind Shiro and let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. “What do you want, ugly?” he asked the alien plush in the corner. It’s empty, black eyes stared back.
Lance
Lance dove under his bed’s covers almost immediately after the room’s door had opened. He grabbed one of his pillows and held it tightly against him as he grinned at Hunk who took longer to get into bed. “Sooooooo…?”
Hunk stared at Lance and tilted his head, “‘So’ what?” Lance groaned and buried his head in the pillow’s softness.
“So did you have fun with Shay?” He questioned. Hunk’s ears and neck reddened at the innocent question.
“O-Oh um...yeah,” he shyly answered. “We had a lot of fun. I um even won her a small goldfish too.” His fingers pressed against each other and Lance smiled, happy to see his best friend act like a twitterpated high schooler. “I promised her that we’ll go into town tomorrow and get it a tank and food.”
Lance sat straight up in his bed, accidentally hitting the wall in the process. He flinched momentarily and sighed when he heard a thump from the other side. “SORRY KEITH!” He apologized before turning his attention back to a more important matter. “No way! You’re going on a date?!”
“It’s not a date Lance! We’re just getting fish supplies. I used to care for some fish and thought it would be nice to help Shay keep it alive.” Lance looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
“Uh-huh, and what’s the fish’s name?”
Hunk’s eyes brightened up as he said the name, “Vox! Shay named it herself. It’s a pretty cool name, huh?”
“It’s something alright,” Lance replied. He yawned and stretched, “Well I’m going to get ready for bed. This day has been quite eventful.” Hunk agreed and the two prepared for the magical ritual which is sleep.