Chapter Text
Throughout his college career Keith has overheard some very interesting conversations. Maybe interesting is a generous word, but nonetheless he had never felt the need to join any of these conversations. He was already shy and the awkwardness that came with walking up to a stranger and inserting yourself into their conversation deterred him from doing so. Unfortunately he has missed out on many conversations about things that he would actually love to talk about because of this anxiety. But today was different.
The urge to interrupt him before he finished was overwhelming. Keith was just minding his own business, scrolling through his unfinished essay on his phone, waiting for his next class when he was distracted by a very passionate, dare he call it, conversation. Some boy he was pretty sure was in his economics class (what was his name? Louie? Lenny? Something with a L) was rambling on about a subject to a short girl with tousled auburn hair. The boy leaned back and crossed his arms as he spoke.
“Come on Pidge, you can't really think that it's real.”
Pidge adjusted her glasses and gave the boy a slight sneer.
“I don't care that you're a non-believer Lance. I've seen the evidence, I've tried to show you the evidence-”
“I don't think a few grainy pictures you found on the internet counts as evidence Pidge.”
So his name was Lance.
“Shun the non believer.”
“Really Pidge? Just face it. Mothman isn't real."
Now Keith has always considered himself at least slightly rational, even though Shiro would adamantly disagree. But he has been obsessed with mothman and other monsters since he was little. It gave him something to hold on to when he was stuck in the orphanage after his parents died. Analysing mysteries was fun and it was distracting, which helped him get through the shit he had to deal with when he was young. Even after being adopted and becoming friends with Shiro he was still interested in it. He was not going to let some random person tarnish his coping mechanisms, especially when they obviously knew nothing about what they were talking about.
“You're wrong.”
Lance turned towards him.
“What?”
Keith stood strong. “You're wrong about mothman.”
“Excuse me?” Lance gave him an incredulous stare. “You really believe in a half man half moth?”
Keith clenched his teeth a little harder. “Look it may sound unbelievable at first, but if you take into account all the other strange creatures on this earth, a half man half moth doesn't seem that strange.”
Pidge gave a small smirk towards Lance.
“Um yes it does. It does seem that strange.”
“There have been multiple sightings from people in and surrounding Point Pleasant! And yeah, some were debunked as pranksters, but there are also many cases that couldn't be disproven!”
“He's right Lance,” Pidge chimed in.
Lance closed his eyes and rubbed his temples “I'm not going to believe in a fucking fuzzy red-eyed creature that flies without flapping its wings.” Lance’s eyes slitted open “who even are you?”
“I'm Keith.” He gave him an unimpressed look.
“Look Keith it was probably just an owl or a big bat.”
“Yeah an eight foot tall owl.”
“Lance.” Pidge said
“Okay, you honestly think that I'm going to believe you? Why would I believe in a freaking mothm-”
“Lance!”
Lance’s eyes snapped back to Pidge. “What Pidge?”
“I hate to end this” Pidge interrupted, “but we will be late to our class if we don't hurry.”
Lance narrowed his eyes at Keith “We'll continue this later mullet.”
“Don't call me that.”
Keith watched Lance walk away with Pidge. Even though Lance was extremely annoying and had obviously not done enough research, his pouty face was quite...cute.
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Lance had lied. He knew who Keith was all along. And frankly he has had a crush on him since he had seen that stupid mullet in his economics class. Lance couldn't believe his crush had entered the conversation just to tell him he was wrong. The audacity!
Keith had always seemed like a loner. As far as Lance knew, Keith had no friends and he only spoke when he needed to. Lance had wanted to approach him and maybe at least become his friend, but he was so…well…unapproachable. Honestly Lance was kinda pissed that their first conversation was arguing about mothman of all things. But the fact that Keith is so passionate about what is probably just a man in a costume is actually really...kinda...cute. Nope, Lance thought, not thinking about that not right now.
But apparently he was going to be forced to think about it.
“That was interesting.” Pidge chuckled.
“I don't want to hear it.”
“Aw come on Lance I saw you blushing.”
“I don't know what you're talking about.” Lance kept his eyes forward.
“You liiiiike him don't you?”
Lance scoffed. “As if I'd like some dude with a mullet that believes in mothman.”
“Don't give me that crap. You totally have a crush on him. And I don't think the average person would consider that hairstyle a mullet Lance.”
They arrived at the door to their calculus class and stepped into the lecture hall. Lance turned back to Pidge.
“What? That was obviously a mullet!” He harshly whispered now that they were in the classroom.
“Sure.” Pidge brushed past him and plopped herself into her usual seat. Lance just stared at her for a second before sitting next to her. Pidge was extremely intelligent, creative, and, although it may not always seem like it, an amazing friend. They met when Lance went for tutoring for math after he failed his algebra test freshman year He would have asked Hunk for the help, but Hunk already had an extremely busy schedule going to all those robotic and technology clubs. Even though she was quite snarky when he got things wrong, Pidge explained it in a way he understood. Eventually they started hanging outside of tutoring sessions. They did everything from going to the cafe to sleepovers with Hunk when they were stressed. Hunk and her were acquaintances, so she was quickly accepted into the friend group and he was glad that she was. He appreciates everything she does for him, but damn, can she be annoying.
Lance took his water bottle out of his bag and casually took a sip.
“Do you want to fuck him?”
Lance promptly spit his water everywhere including a few people in the row ahead of them. “What the fuck Pidge?”
She gave him a Cheshire cat grin. “It was just an innocent question.”
“Yeah” Lance wiped his mouth with his sleeve, “innocent.”
“Come on, at least try to get his number.”
Lance glared at her as she gave him her best puppy dog look. “Fine. I'll try” he relinquished. It's not like he didn't want to. Her face split into a shit eating grin.
“Excellent.”