Chapter Text
"Lance, have you ever considered just asking him out on a date," Hunk looks up from marking a student's work to give Lance the look™. Lance flushes.
"Because, I've told you, I don't like him like that!" Lance practically screeches.
"Really? Because the first time you saw him I distinctly remember you telling me he had the best ass you'd ever seen."
"And I stick to that statement, but it doesn't make him any less of an unsufferable quiznak."
"That's not a real word."
"As far as my nieces and nephews are concerned it is."
"Whatever, I'm just saying that this isn't necessarily your best seducing tactic."
"I AM NOT TRYING TO SEDUCE HIM!"
Several heads in the staff room turn to look at them. Hunk smiles and waves apologetically at them before turning to Lance who has gone a bright pink at is stabbing at some food on his plate.
"Okay, okay, so let's say you're not into him."
"I'm not."
"Antagonising him still might not be your best option, isn't he like the headmaster's younger brother or something?"
"A, I'm not antagonising him. B, Shiro loves me, he'd never fire me over something like this."
"Right, you just challenged his brother to a duel."
"He agreed to it!"
"Doesn't make it any less ridiculous."
"This is a perfect way to prove that I am better than him once and for all."
"He has the top form, there's no way you can pull your classes scores up to match theirs."
"Are you doubting your students Hunk?"
"Yes, no offence, but I have met your class. One of them was convinced that they could run faster than light."
"Klaizap just needs a little extra help that's all."
"What are even the stakes in this competition?"
"The loser has to sing at the leavers assembly"
"Yeah, it might be best to call this off while you still can."
"I am not wimping out!"
"Your funeral," Hunk sighs. "Anyway, isn't your class about to start?" Lance glances up at the clock.
"Oh shit, it is! See ya!" Lance dashes out of the room, slowing down with a mumbled apology as someone shouts at him in the background.
Hunk shakes his head and sighs, getting back to marking the pile of work in front of him.
"Come on Pidge, it's like you're not even trying to fail this class!" Lance throws his hands in the air as Pidge executes another scene perfectly.
"That would be because I'm not." Pidge rolls her eyes. "You better not mark me down just because of this stupid feud you have going with Keith."
"It's not like you even care about Drama," Lance pouts. "You're gonna become an engineer or something."
"Lance."
Lance raises his hands in defeat. "Chill there Gunderson, it's not like I'd ever actually lower your grade because of this bet. That would break the rules of the agreement."
"It's nice to know that it's only because of that rule. You're an upstanding teacher Lance."
Lance ignores Pidge and calls up the next student. An A star it is for Pidge then. And not just because Pidge scares him. Which she does.
Lance's classes pass without much else of interest happening, he assigns all of his year elevens their projects, (a short movie based on one of their interests) loses horribly to Hunk in a game of online scrabble while the students are busy with their activities, [stupid game won't accept fergalicious as a word] and almost falls asleep in his year seven class. All in all a pretty standard day. Until the clock hits four o'clock and right on time the heavens part and chuck it down. Fuck this morning him who thought it would be a good idea to start biking to work.
Lance sighs. There’s no way he can bike home in this without breaking his neck, and that isn't how Lance wants to die. Lance is going to die doing something cool, like fighting a ninja. Or because he pisses off the wrong person and they hire an assassin to kill him. There can be no in-between.
So once half an hour has passed and it's still raining Lance bites the bullet and walks down to the bus stop. What he isn't expecting is for keith to be taking that same bus. And leaving at the same time. Fuck fate. Fate has always had it out for Lance for one reason or another.
The bus stop, thankfully, isn't far away. The bus on the other hand is super fucking late.
As they arrive at the bus stop Keith turns to Lance.
"Look, you sit on one end of the bus, I'll sit on the other, and we'll be far, far away from each other. Very far away."
Lance doesn't bother replying, instead choosing to glare out angrily at the road, not so silently cursing whatever gods were responsible for the weather.
Lance hasn't said a word yet. Well not to Keith anyway. He has made plenty of comments to himself in the past ten minutes. Enough so that Keith has more or less learnt to block it out. Until...
"Why do you have a Mothman umbrella?" Lance's voice breaks the silence.
"What?" Keith turns to Lance, confused. Is he talking to me?
"Your umbrella, it has mothman on it," Lance scrunches his face into a squint
"Solid observational skills."
"Why?"
"Because I got it from the Mothman museum."
"Why were you at the Mothman museum?"
"To learn about Mothman."
"Why do you want to learn about it?"
"Because it's interesting. "
"Let me guess, you also think the moon landing was faked." Lance rolls his eyes as he says it, fixing Keith with a "this is the most ridiculous thing I've heard all day and I work at a high school" stare. It's a very specific stare, and Keith isn't entirely sure how he manages to pull it off, but he does.
In return Keith shoots back a much simpler "Well obviously" stare.
"Do aliens exist too?" There's a laugh in Lance's voice now, as if he's having fun with this conversation.
"It's just conceited to think that we're the only life in the universe."
"But thinking it must be spying on us isn't?"
"Then why does NASA keep cutting off their live feeds whenever ufos show up, and what is that thing orbiting earth, the one we didn't send up there."
"You mean the moon?"
"No, but the moon's probably populated by aliens anyway."
"And let me guess, Harry from one direction is secretly a duck?"
"That one is just ridiculous."
They banter back and forth like that until the bus arrives, and keith cant help but breath a sigh of relief. No matter how cute Lance may be, he is most definitely not someone Keith wanted to spend half an hour stuck at a bus stop with. As the bus opens it's doors Keith doesn't even bother saying goodbye to lance as he practically leaps on board. As he hears Lance step on behind him he remembers. Oh yeah, he's getting this bus too.
Ignoring Lance for now he shows the bus driver his pass and walks off o find a seat. He doesn't get far. The entire bus is crammed, and even if keith was okay with sitting next to a stranger the only spaces left are the standing ones. Thankfully by some miracle there are a couple of free ones at the edge. So at least he can be in a corner and have some room to breath. Or at least that’s his plan. The universe however has other plans for Keith. Minutes later Lance squeezes in next to Keith.
Keith shoots him an "I thought we had an agreement" look and in return Lance gestures at the full bus behind them.
"Better budge up kiddo," Lance says, as if Keith isn't already folding himself into the corner as tightly as possible.
"I'm older than you," Keith hisses at lance as he pulls his jacket around himself as tightly as it will go. It isn't very far.
"Really, but you're so short?" Lance raises his eyebrows in surprise and keith cant tell if it's genuine or if lance is just mocking him. He decides he's probably making fun of him and meets his gaze with a well-practiced scowl.
"There is an inch between us at most," he grumbles, furrowing his eyebrows further.
Lance straightens up. "I think you meant at least." With keith slouched as much as he was it made quite the difference. Fuck it. /keith stands up as straight as he can without falling over on the bus.
"See, there is not that much difference," Keith smiles smugly as he says it, folding his arms triumphantly.
Lance rolls his eyes, "I don't think tip- WHOAH!" The bus brakes sharply and they both stumble. On one hand Keith is a PE teacher and has been taking the bus for a while, so he shoots out his arms for balance and plants his feet firmly on the ground and aside from a small stumble manages to stay upright. Lance on the other hand is less practiced in the art of not falling over on moving buses. His legs slip out from under him and he stumbles forward into Keith, whose arms are now wide open. He looks up into Keith's face.
"Well, fancy meeting you here," Lance quips. Keith turns red and drops Lance onto the floor. Lance yelps in surprise as he hits the ground and several people turn to look. Some of them look concerned, others laugh and a few tut, shake their heads and look away. Lance turns red as he dusts himself off and gets up, scowling at the people who laughed at him. Keith smirks at him.
"Whatever," Lance smoothes his hair down and then resumes his previous position next to Keith. "Why are you taking the bus anyway, you clearly don't like people."
Keith just shrugs. "Shiro doesn't like it when I bring my motorbike to school."
"You have a motorbike!?" Lance's eyes have gone wide, and fuck is it adorable. Keith sinks deeper into his jacket in an effort to hide the blush he knows is creeping onto his face.
"Um, yeah?" it's a lame response and Keith knows it, but apparently the mere proximity of Lance frazzles his brain enough that it can't supply anything else. He can only hope that Lance doesn't pick up on it.
"Dude that's awesome!" Lance's eyes are still wide with excitement and wonder and Keith can't tell if he's making fun of him or not. He seems sincere... Keith sighs and decides to roll with it. They talk about motorcycles for a while, a ten minute conversation in which Keith deduces that Lance knows nothing about them other than what he's seen on TV. Some of the 'facts' that he threw at Lance may have been less than true, but Lance had proclaimed himself his rival right? Anything he did to provoke him was really just fulfilling Lances wishes. Also maybe he was having just a little bit too much fun with this. Really it was lance's fault for being so adorable when he got excited, and for being so damn gullible.
Eventually Lance glances out of the window and freezes. "Shit, shit shit shit," he curses loudly and a few parents shoot him dirty looks.
"What's up? Keith takes this opportunity to look at lance, who is too busy raking his fingers through his hair to notice him staring. Even stressed out Lance is fucking beautiful.
"I missed my stop, as if my home isn't far enough from the bus stop already," he grumbles. "I'm going to get quiznaking soaked."
Keith doesn't bother asking what quiznaking means. Instead his body acts before he can think about things too much. As Lance makes his move to get off of the bus Keith sticks out his umbrella.
"Keith, I'm flattered, I really am, unless of course this a plot to get me even wetter, in which case fuck you, but I need to get off of this bus." Lance turns to Keith with one eyebrow raised as he speaks.
Keith rolls his eyes and he can feel himself flushing, but he's determined not to wimp out now. "Borrow my umbrella, I live close to the bus stop anyway." Keith doesn't meet Lance's eyes, staring stubbornly at the tip of the umbrella as he speaks. Lance's eyes widen slightly, and he fumbles over his words. Keith braves a sneaky glance at Lance out of the corner of his eye. He looks flustered, blushing red slightly and eyes darting all over the place. Keith feels a little bit less embarrassed about his own face, which he's sure must be flaring red.
"Erm, thanks," Lance finally manages to stutter out as the bus pulls to a halt. He takes the umbrella and for the slightest moment their fingers brush. Keith can't help but notice how soft Lance's hands are.
"Whatever, just don't forget to return it." Keith drops his hand and stares at the ground, sinking back into the wall. Once Lance is safely off of the bus Keith sneaks a peak out of the window. Lance has tied his jacket around his waist now that he has the umbrella, and keith doesn't blame him, despite the rain it's still a warm day, but damn does it look good on him and that is not something Keith was prepared for. Just as he can feel the blush creeping up Lance turns, looks at him, smiles innocently and waves slightly before turning away. Keith feels like he might be on fire.
It's already six o'clock by the time Keith gets home, and he is so not in the mood to socialise anymore. It's Lance's fault really. Somehow he always manages to max out Keith's allotted socialising energy, even when he’s being civil apparently. It’s probably because he never plans on lance, and lance certainly didn't seem to care for Keith's carefully planned day and social interactions. He always manages to use up all of the energy he had put aside for random encounters and then some. It's a skill the guy seems to have perfected somehow. Shiro however doesn't seem to have gotten the memo.
"So how was your day?" Shiro practically chirps. Keith narrows his eyes. Why is his brother in such a good mood? It's uncharacteristic of him to say the least, especially after such a long day of work. Normally his mood on a Monday night was more "I wish for death to come quickly".
"What clone did they replace you with?" He grumbles, collapsing onto the sofa as he does so. As a result the end of the sentence is rather garbled due the cushion he face plants into.
"None, I'm just in a good mood." Shiro is bouncing on the balls of his toes as he speaks now, and Keith turns his face to look at him, snorting disbelievingly as he does so.
"Yeah right, and I'm the queen of England," he replies, layering his voice thick with sarcasm. There's something going on with Shiro, but he's too lazy to figure it out right now
"Okay your highness, so whats gotten you to be such a royal pain in the ass grumpy guts?" Shiro grins at Keith, not caring that keith clearly does not want to have this conversation. Sometimes Keith really hates his older brother.
"Nothing," Keith mumbles, turning his face back into the pillow he's now hugging.
"Is this about the motorbike? Because even if I did let you bring it to the school, it would have been dangerous to ride it out in this weather anyway." Shiro's voice is gently chastising, and Keith has to bite down the urge to tell him that actually he would be just fine on his bike and that he's been out in worse weather than this. Okay maybe Shiro doesn't need to know that last part.
"It is not about the motorbike Shiro."
"M’kay, if you say so," Shiro backs off the subject, letting Keith brood on it. "Also are you helping out with the school trip coming up?" Shiro waves a piece of paper in Keith's face. Keith snatches it out of the air and looks at it, it's a sign up form for what teachers would be assigned to what. He considered it briefly, a day out would be nice, even if he did have to deal with a bunch of hyper active teenagers being let loose. Not that that would be much different to his usual day.
"Sure," he says. Keith, a creature of habit, scans the collums of names to check which one has the least teachers listed, and scrawls his name at the bottom without checking the names already listed. He holds it out for Shiro to take again. Shiro looks at the paper, quirks an eyebrow up and gives Keith an odd look. "You sure?"
Keith waves Shiro of with a "Yeah, yeah, yeah," and grabs at a book, hoping that Shiro will at last leave. It works, and Shiro exits the room. Keith breathes a sigh of relief, it isn't that he doesn't love Shiro, he does, he just doesn't want to spend time with anyone at the moment. What he needs right now is some him time. Keith takes his book and trudges up to his room. Maybe he'll work on his wall for a while before dinner. He doesn't, instead he scrolls through online forums for a while, but he doesn't find anything interesting or new. Eventually he hears Shiro shout his name from downstairs. He shoots out of his room, hoping food might be done, not because he's particularly hungry, more for something to do than anything else. To his surprise when he looks out over the stairs he sees Shiro pulling on a pair of suspiciously shiny looking shoes.
"Hey, there you are! Um, im going to meet up with someone to discuss some school stuff, but ive left some money on the table in case you want to get ay food, keep the change." Shiro looks somewhat flustered as he speaks and Keith narrows his eyes.
"Are you meeting up with that English teacher, allura?" Suddenly the joyous buzz Shiro has had going for the past hour or so makes sense.
Keith swears he sees Shiro blush.
"Erm, yeah. For school stuff," Shiro defends lamely.
"Riiiight," Keith doesn't say anything else, but leans against the wall and smirks in the way he knows will get Shiro the most defensive.
Shiro bumbles around with excuses for a while longer and then stumbles out of the door. Keith smiles fondly and shakes his head. Once alone Keith heads back up to his room, he can't be bothered to deal with sorting food yet so he just adds the money Shiro left him to his "Shiro left me alone in the house without warning or food and this is compensation" jar and lies down on his bed. He's not got much to do, so he just grabs the book he was reading earlier and tries to get back into it. No luck. He rolls onto his back and groans, maybe he just needs to sleep. Ten minutes later he's changed position a couple dozen times, redone the bed twice and had no less than five weird spasms of energy. He sits up sighing. Sleep definitely isn't an option.
Keith tries pacing around the room next, to hopefully burn off some of that excess energy and get his thoughts together. After five minutes he's stubbed his toe three times on several stray objects and his feet are no longer up for this, so he leaves his room and heads down the stairs. He finds finds himself in the garage, and he glances outside. It's cleared up a bit, and while the roads are still wet from the rain, it's not like Shiro is here to nag at him about safety. Keith heads over to his motorbike and straps on a helmet [he's reckless, not an idiot] he puts in earphones and lets his music play on all songs. A rare treat he rarely indulges himself in, as some of the songs on keith's ipod are... not exactly his usual style.
Do you wanna ride, do you wanna ride... the music is just a little too loud in his ears, but he knows that soon most of it will be drowned out by his bike. Keith lets himself settle into the seat, revs the engine a couple of times, and then he's off. He's out of the garage and flying through the streets.
Keith lives in a pretty isolated area, which Shiro always says makes him feel like he’s going to end up in the first five minutes of a horror movie, but Keith likes it. It’s quiet out here, he can be alone. He can race through the back roads at speeds which on a normal road would have a less experienced motorcyclist crash into every car there. He feels the wind tearing at him, and allows himself a small grin. This is his element. The open road, nothing to stop him, nothing to trap him. In these moments he could go anywhere, be anyone, and no one could stop him. He lets himself take a moment to think about everything that happened today; Lance, school... Lance. Keith sighs, breathes in, and then lets it out, all of it. Thoughts have n place on his motorbike, here everything is gone, just him on the open road. No distractions. Just him, his bike and his music.
They see you as small and helpless...