Work Text:
8:51pm
Lance ran his hand across the smooth wood surface of the chair in front of him. It was a nice chair, and nice dining set overall, but it was also out of their price range, which made the Ikea employee trying to convince his boyfriend to buy it all the more annoying. Lance could tell Keith was getting pretty frustrated by the employee too, but at this point, Keith had already been listening like he was actually considering buying it, and it was too late to get out now. Lance felt like he should probably help him get out of the situation, but sometimes it was fun to watch Keith try to dig himself out of social situations. Sometimes. Although, at this point he’s had enough. Lance gently places his hands of Keith’s shoulders, “I’m sorry,” Lance says to the employee, interrupting his speech about the type of wood used in the dining set, “but we’re not interested.” Simple and to the point. Why can’t Keith just say that? Lance slid his hand into his boyfriend’s and dragged him away.
“Oh, alright! Have a nice day!” The employee chirped happily, sending them a wave of his hand as they walked away.
“One of these days you’re going to have to learn how to talk to strangers without me.” Lance teased his boyfriend lightly.
“I can talk to strangers.” Keith huffed in annoyance, his eyebrows furrowed in irritation. “He just… was too talkative. I felt like I couldn’t say anything, so I just kept nodding.”
Lance chuckled, “I probably should have saved you sooner, then.”
Keith pouted, but didn’t say anything—which only made Lance laugh harder.
“Can we go now? We’ve been here for hours and we still haven’t found anything we like.” Keith complained. Lance couldn’t blame him, either. They had been at Ikea for literal hours trying to find a decent piece of furniture for their apartment. In hindsight, they should have just looked on the internet for something first. But sometimes it was nice looking around in an actual store. Although Ikea was more of maze than a furniture store.
They had just recently moved into an apartment together. Everything was fine except for the fact that they had almost next to nothing furniture wise. And that had to do with the fact that neither of them had really bought furniture before.
For Lance, he lived with his best friends Hunk and Pidge. Hunk had bought the majority of the furniture for the place, because it was technically his. Lance wouldn’t have been able to buy furniture even if he wanted to. He worked as an intern in the science lab at his school. On top of that and attending classes, he didn’t have time for a second job, and unfortunately interning didn’t exactly row in the dough. Hunk and his girlfriend Shay ran a catering business together, which gave Hunk the luxury of buying nice things every now and then. Pidge was in about the same position as Lance. Interning at school and talking classes, but Pidge also tutored students and took any jobs that she could. How she managed to do all that and still get straight A’s was beyond Lance. He suspected that lack of sleep and copious amounts of coffee had something to with it.
Lance’s contribution to his and Keith’s apartment had been a queen sized mattress and bed frame, a small bookshelf, a beanie bag chair, his collection of retro games and consoles he acquired over the years, and two folding chairs that he got from the lab (they were about to throw them out and you can’t let good chairs go to waste, can you?). Needless to say, his contribution was pretty pathetic. He hoped that maybe Keith would have had enough to make up what he lacked, but he was sorely disappointed.
Keith on the other hand, had lived with his brother, Shiro. He didn’t go to college even though Shiro said he had great potential. It just wasn’t something he had wanted, and while his brother was slightly disappointed in this, he still never stopped supporting him. Keith currently worked at an auto shop and, at the moment, made more money than Lance did. However neither of them made enough to be able to fully furnish their apartment when they moved in.
Keith’s contribution was equally pathetic as Lance’s was. He had brought a decent sized TV, a playstation 4, and a collapsible table, which currently served as their dining table, accompanied by Lance’s two folding chairs. Lance was just grateful that Keith had a TV. The ps4 was also very important seeing as they could play mortal kombat and watch Netflix (off of Hunk’s account, of course) with it.
Although sharing the one beanie bag, which is usually only meant for one person, was less than ideal, Lance believes it could’ve been a lot worse. Besides, they just moved in a month ago, so not everything would be perfect right away.
Not long after they settled in, they decided they were going to need to get some essentials for their place. So they planned that once a month, with some money that they saved up, they would try to find some decent furniture.
Which brings them to Ikea. Why they chose Ikea as their first stop, Lance would never know. But they were there now, so no going back. Seriously. Was there any going back? Was there even an exit?
“Let’s just try to find something.” Lance answered. He didn’t want their first furniture shopping experience to be for nothing. They had to find something.
Keith grunted in response, his eyes narrowing toward the ground.
“This isn’t so bad,” Lance tried to soothe him, but when he noticed that Keith’s expression didn’t lighten, he added, “Besides, if we don’t get something today, we’ll have to come back.” Lance smiled slyly when Keith’s eyes widened at the sudden realization.
“Let’s find something quick, then.” Keith decided with determination in his voice.
They continued to walk in comfortable silence, hands still intertwined together. When they passed one of the bedroom sets, Lance stopped them and decided to inspect it. Even though he knew they weren’t going to buy it, he still wanted to check it out. He’s not really sure what caught his attention, it wasn’t even his style, but his eyes still roamed over it.
“You know we can’t afford this, right?” Keith asked, sitting down on the display bed and raising an eyebrow at Lance.
“I know, but I can dream, can’t I?”
Keith sighed and laid back on the bed, arms stretched at both sides. Lance strolled over to the bed and picked up one of the throw pillows from underneath Keith’s arm and glanced at geometric pattern on it before gently tapping his boyfriend’s face with it. “Stop being so grumpy.” Lance chided.
Without missing a beat, Keith’s hand grabbed a pillow and flung it weakly at Lance’s face. Which started one of the most pathetic pillow fights Lance had ever been a part of. It lasted for less than 30 seconds and only ended because Keith’s arm couldn’t reach anymore of the pillows on the bed and the rest were on the floor, which both of them were reluctant to get. Usually something like this would’ve lasted a lot longer, but they were both tired. And their tiredness beat their competitive spirit this time.
Lance got up from the side of the bed and made his way over to the wardrobe on the edge of the bedroom set. He opened the doors to it and inspected the inside. Nothing special, just an average wardrobe. Did people still buy wardrobes? Apparently so, considering Ikea was selling one. It was so spacious you could easily fit three people inside. If they were willing to be squished together, that is. Two people could comfortably fit in there, he thought. Wanting to test this, Lance turned to Keith with a smile.
“Babe!” Keith was still laying on the bed, head turned toward the ceiling. If Lance didn’t know Keith, he would think that he fell asleep. But Lance liked to think that he knew his boyfriend pretty well, and he knew Keith didn’t fall asleep that easily. “Baaabe,” Lance tried again, drawing the word out.
“What,” Keith groaned in frustration.
“Come here.”
“Why.”
“Just—please! I want to try something,”
Keith sighed, and begrudgingly sat up, making his way over to Lance.
Lance smirked at him and held the door of the wardrobe open for him, “After you~” he sang.
Keith raised an eyebrow at him. “What are you doing?” Keith stood outside the door, staring warily at the wardrobe, as if Lance had planted some kind of trap in there for him.
“Testing something.” Lance gave him the short answer and gestured his hand toward the wardrobe again.
“Fine,” Keith sighed reluctantly and stepped inside. Lance followed after him and shut the door.
Light squeezed its way through the cracks of the doors. Lance concluded that you can, in fact, comfortably fit two people in there.
“So,” Keith started, his dark eyes looking around the wardrobe, which felt a lot smaller now that he was inside of it. “What was the point of this?”
“I wanted to see if two people could fit in here.” Lance stated simply. Keith just raised his eyebrows and nodded his head in understanding.
He took advantage of their close proximity to admire his boyfriend. His outfit wasn’t anything special, but Keith still managed to look good in anything. His hair was tucked under a gray beanie, a few loose strands of his bangs decorated his forehead. He was wearing a black t-shirt with a dark red hoodie draped over his shoulders. The black skinny jeans we was wearing had a few holes in them (for fashion reasons) and they were tucked into his black boots. He wore a lot of black. A true edgelord, Lance thought fondly.
“What?” Keith eyed him, one eyebrow raised curiously. Lance realized he had been smiling at him for a little while now, and felt his cheeks warm up at the realization.
“Nothing,” Lance brought a hand up to his neck, “I was just admiring the view~” Lance recovered smoothly, waggling his eyebrows,
Keith snorted and rolled his eyes, a fond smile spreading across his face. “Oh yeah?” Keith’s voice turned low and flirtatious, “You like what you see?” He brought his hand up Lance’s chest, grabbing the part of his jacket there.
Lance nodded, throat suddenly dry. He reached his hand behind Keith’s head as he leaned in to kiss him, their lips pressed together for brief moment before Keith pulled away with a small smirk.
“That makes one of us.” Keith teased, his smile growing wider as he watched Lance’s face contort in offense.
“Keith!” He yelled, shoving his boyfriend’s shoulders lightly. Keith only laughed in response, arms crossing over his stomach. Lance decided to retaliate in the only way he knew how. He pushed Keith back to the corner of the small space and started tickling his stomach.
“AH!” Keith yelped in surprise at Lance’s sudden attack, “Lance!” he laughed, trying to shove him back. “I was kidding!” he shouted desperately. Lance finally stopped his tickling and Keith breathed heavily from laughing so much.
“Serves you right.” Lance snorted as he wrapped his arms around Keith’s waist, bringing him closer.
“Worth it,” Keith breathed, still a little breathless from laughing. He grabbed both sides of Lance’s hoodie and brought his face down to his, pressing his lips against his. Lance’s hands moved up Keith’s back, trying to pull him closer. Keith tangled Lance’s hair in his fingers and Lance sighed gently into his mouth as their lips moved together. It was Lance that broke their kiss this time, and Keith whined when he pulled away.
“We should probably get going now.” Lance suggested quietly, bringing a hand up to Keith’s face and gently swiping one of his bangs out of his eyes.
“Okay,” Keith mumbled.
Lance opened the doors of the wardrobe and hopped outside, Keith followed him out. They made their way through to maze of boxes and various furniture sets until they made it up toward the front of the store.
“Hey does it…” Keith trailed off, catching Lance’s attention. He turned to give his boyfriend a curious stare. “…seem quiet in here or?” Keith continued looking around the store.
Lance considered this for a moment, eyes wandering around him. Now that he mentioned it, it did seem really quiet.
“Uh,” Lance muttered, “It’s probably just because it’s late,” He checked his phone for the time: 9:22. What time did Ikea close again?
Lance quickly took Keith’s hand into his and rushed to the entrance where they found… No one. No cashiers, no employees, nothing. Shit.
“Uh oh,”
They both stared blankly at the empty store.
“Let’s just break out,” Keith started making his way to the door, but Lance placed a hand on his shoulder, holding him back and stopping him in his place.
“We can’t just break out! We’ll set off the alarm.” Lance reasoned.
“So? Then they’ll come get us out of here.” Keith countered.
“Yeah, but what if we get in trouble?” Lance questioned, hands on his hips and one eyebrow quirked up.
“We’ll be in trouble either way.” Keith crossed his arms, his eyebrows slanting down in his signature angry look. “They have cameras, Lance.” Keith gestured around the room. “They’ll know we were here.”
Lance thought about that for a second, but quickly put on a sly smile. “Oh please,” he started, waving his hand in the air, “They never check the camera footage.” Lance crossed his arms over his chest, sending Keith a smirk.
“How would you know that?” Keith asked, shifting his weight to the side and narrowing his eyes.
“I used to work in retail, remember?” Lance brought his elbow up to rest on his boyfriend’s shoulders. “They never check camera footage unless they have to.” Lance cocked his head to the side, smile growing wider as Keith’s expression softened. “And,” Lance added, “They’ll have no reason to check the cameras if we don’t set off the alarm.”
“So, what? We’re just going to stay at Ikea all night?”
“Yeah!” Lance grabbed Keith’s shoulders in excitement, “Haven’t you ever wanted to stay in a store past close?”
“Uh… no? Have you?”
“Come on, Keith, think of the possibilities!” Lance hooked an arm across Keith’s back and motioned his free hand in front of him, much like a salesman pitching to a major client. “We could jump on mattresses, race in those weird cart things, build a fort out of boxes—a fort, Keith! A fort!” Lance shook Keith in excitement.
Keith looked at him thoughtfully for a moment. “Well, alright.”
Lance pumped his fist in the air, letting out a victorious “Yes!”
“Only because we don’t have much of choice, though.” Keith added grumpily.
“Trust me Keith, this will be fun.”
_________
9:56pm
Lance placed the last box on top of their wall of boxes, completing the small fort they made. “There!” He took a couple steps back to admire his work. It was underwhelming at best. It was just a couple of the lighter boxes they had found stacked on a pallet. It was decent fort, and, honestly, it was all Lance felt like doing. Given enough time and energy, he could totally make a better fort than this. But for now, this would do.
“So what now?” Keith asked, crossing his arms and looking at the fort with indifference.
Lance looked at the fort, bringing his thumb and index finger up to rest under his chin while he hummed thoughtfully. “Oh, I know!” Lance hopped over to the bedroom set closest to them and grabbed an armful of pillows. He tossed them into the fort and motioned to Keith to help him get more.
Once he was satisfied with the amount of pillows they had, he crawled through the entrance of the fort and collapsed onto the pile of pillows. Keith joined him seconds later.
They stared up at the dull fluorescent lights flickering above them. Lance brought his hands up to Keith’s hair to stroke it gently and Keith leaned into the touch naturally. A few minutes passed in silence, all that could be heard was the static buzzing from the lights, the radio playing generic music softly, and their own breathing.
“I’m hungry.” Lance said suddenly, breaking the silence.
“Me too.” Keith echoed.
“Do you think they have snacks in the checkout line?” Lance asked, bringing his arm up over his eyes to cover them from the harsh fluorescent light, his other arm remained by Keith’s head.
“Probably,” Keith stretched his arms out over his head, letting out a soft groan. “But we can’t just steal the food.”
“Who said we’d be stealing?” Lance sat up, “We’ll pay for it in the morning before we leave.” Lance got up to his feet as Keith sat up. “C’mon.” He said as he held out his hand for Keith to take.
It was at this moment that Lance realized he could do one of two things: one, he could be a good boyfriend, and hold his hand and walk over to the checkout lines, or…
“Have you ever wanted to play tag in a store like this?” Lance asked with a mischievous grin.
Poor Keith, who looked like he didn’t hear what Lance said, or maybe didn’t understand what he meant, said “What?” before he was pushed back onto the pillows by his boyfriend while he yelled “TAG!” and immediately bolted while giggling like a maniac.
Still laughing, Lance made a corner around one of the dining sets while he heard Keith scream, “LANCE!”
“Oh, shit!” he laughed as he heard the rushed footsteps of his boyfriend behind him. Lance had forgotten how fast his boyfriend was, despite the fact that Keith was shorter than him. What Keith lacked in leg he made up for in speed. Lance quickened his pace as he made his way to the front of the store.
He could practically feel Keith gaining on him, each time he tried to speed up, Keith just went faster. He could feel panic, regret, and adrenaline coursing through his body as he was chased throughout the store.
Lance quickly knocked down one of the chairs from a dining set and winced when he heard it clatter on the floor. He looked behind him as he was running to see if it would trip up Keith, but Keith simply jumped over the chair effortlessly, determination in his eyes.
Shit, Lance thought as he turned his head back to see where he was going. Shit shit shitshitshit.
Now that he could feel Keith almost directly behind him, he decided he might as well give up. He turned to see Keith lunging at him, and he screamed as Keith pinned him to ground. Keith sat on top of him, Lance’s arms under his hands. Breathless, he panted “You’re it.”
Lance let out a breathy chuckle, “You got me, mullet.” Keith scowled at the pet name, which just made Lance laugh more. “That was fun.”
Keith cracked a smile as he released Lance’s arms. “Yeah, it was.”
They both laughed together, until a gurgling sound erupted from Lance.
“Was that your stomach?” Keith laughed.
“I told you, I’m hungry!”
_________
10:52pm
After gathering some snacks from the checkout, a couple bottles of soda, some chips, and a ton of sour patch kids, Lance and Keith made it back to the corner of the store where their little fort was. They only managed to get lost once on the way back. When they finished about half the snacks they gathered, Keith told Lance that he was going to use the bathroom. Lance was relaxing on the pillows, shoving candy into his face when he heard his phone go off. It was a facetime from Hunk. Shit… were they supposed to go over tonight?
“Hey, Hunk,” he answered, angling the camera to his face.
“Dude, where have you guys been? I was expecting you here like an hour ago.” Hunk looked a little irritated as he walked around his apartment. “Like, I know it takes you forever to get ready, but—“
“Sorry, buddy.” Lance cut him off. “But we got kinda… stuck. We’re locked inside ikea.” Lance admitted sheepishly, knowing Hunk would probably demand an explanation.
Hunk stopped his pacing around his apartment as he looked at Lance incredulously. “What the—why—how? How did you get locked inside ikea?!” Even though Lance could hardly see Hunk’s hands through the screen, he knew he was gesturing wildly with his other hand that wasn’t holding his phone.
“Well, we were shopping…” Lance started slowly.
The environment around Hunk changed as he took a seat on the couch. “Uh-huh,” Hunk nodded, an unamused frown on his face. “And?”
“And, uh, we kinda got distracted?” Lance could hear his voice go up in pitch. He felt like a child explaining why he had a detention to his mom.
Hunk didn’t say anything this time, only raised an eyebrow as if to say “Go on.”
“And—“
“Is that Lance?” Lance heard Pidge say in the background. “Lance where are you guys? We’ve been waiting forever.” Pidges voice got closer as she settled on the couch next to hunk. Hunk angled the camera to fit both of them into frame.
“They’re not coming,” Hunk answered for him. “They’re stuck at ikea.”
“How do you--?” Pidge started.
Again, Hunk answered, “Apparently they got ‘distracted’” Hunk used his free hand to make air quotes. Air quotes, really, Hunk?
Pidge crinkled her nose. “Distracted? How?”
“Yeah, Lance, how?” Hunk questioned, deadpanned. Both of their eyes now trained on Lance, they waited for an answer.
Lance scratched the back of his neck, unsure of how to answer it. They didn’t do anything bad necessarily, so he shouldn’t even feel weird to say it. But… he knows his friends. And he’s pretty sure he knows what their reactions would be. However, he knows they won’t stop bugging him until he gives them an answer. He just needs to say it quickly. Like ripping off a band aid. “Me and Keith were…” easier thought than said. Hunk and Pidge both raised their eyebrows, still waiting. “…makingoutinawardrobe.” He mumbled, eyes darting away from the phone, hoping at least one of them understood him so he didn’t have to repeat himself.
“Lance!” Hunk groaned. Lance was just relieved he understood him.
“What?” Pidge said, clearly not fluent in Lance Gibberish like Hunk was.
“He said,” oh god don’t repeat it, Hunk! “that he and keith were making out in a wardrobe!” Lance covered his face as he felt his cheeks turn red.
“Lance, what the hell!” Pidge’s face wrinkled in disgust.
“Hey!” Lance suddenly felt the need to defend himself. “We could’ve done worse!”
Hunk groaned loudly, “Lance!”
“Ew, you two are so gross.” Pidge said shaking her head.
“You guys asked!” Lance reminded them defensively.
“Where’s Keith at anyway?” Hunk asked, and Lance was grateful for the change of subject. He could feel the red drain out of his face.
“Oh, he went to the bathroom.”
“I can’t believe you idiots got stuck at an ikea.” Pidge shook her head, clearly not over it.
Lance only huffed indignantly, unable to come up with a response.
He was about to say something else when he heard the sound of wheels scrapping against the floor, a small scream, and crashing sound from another part of the store.
“Uh, what was that?” Hunk asked, eyebrows knit in confusion and worry. Pidge wore a similar expression.
Lance got up from his pile of pillows to investigate.
“Keith? Babe, you okay?” He asked when he got closer to the sound. Keith was on the ground, surrounded by a couple boxes and a wheeled chair that had collapsed to the ground.
“Ugh, yeah.” He groaned.
“What did he do??” Hunk asked.
Keith got up and immediately grabbed Lance’s shoulders, “Lance! We have to race in these chairs!”
Lance grinned in excitement as a voice from the phone between them said, “Keith? Lance? What happened?”
“Is that Hunk?” Keith asked, hands falling from Lance’s shoulders.
“Yeah,” Lance answered, “and Pidge.”
“Keith, I just want you to know that both of you are gross and I’m disappointed.” Pidge said at the mention of her name.
Keith looked confused up at Lance. “Just ignore her.” Lance said, not wanting to tell Keith about their conversation earlier.
“You guys better come over tomorrow!” Hunk said, still irritated.
“Okay, we will!” Lance huffed, “We’re gonna race chairs now, so… bye!”
“Lance wa--!” Too late, facetime ended.
“Alright, let’s find another chair!”
_________
11:31pm
Once they managed to find another chair, which took a little longer than expected (why wouldn’t they have more displays of rolly chairs??), they set up their chairs across from each other. They had planned their route while exploring the store for another chair. Their “finish line” was the entrance of one of the check outs with two stanchions with the belt connecting them in front of it. As for the route itself, they decided that whoever made it to the checkout first would win. What would they win, exactly? The satisfaction of winning, duh.
“Ready to get your ass beat, Kogane?” Lance teased, knee resting on the middle of the chair, his other leg stuck out to the ground, ready to propel him forward. His hands gripped the back of the chair.
Keith settled into a similar position on his own chair as he responded, “In your dreams, McClain,” with a mischievous grin of his own.
“Pfft,” Lance shrugged. “Alright, on three!” Lance yelled, hands tensing on the chair with excitement. “One,” Lance leaned forward, out of the corner of his eye he saw Keith readying himself too. “Two,” He positioned his foot behind him, ready to push. “THREE!” and off they went.
Using the chairs like scooters, they made their way down the first stretch of the aisle, neck and neck. Lance was determined to win this one. Keith may be fast, but he doesn’t have the “long leg” advantage that Lance does. He knows Keith won’t lose easily though, so he gives it his all.
Lance laughs as he finally takes the lead, but he’s going a bit too fast for the corner he’s coming up on. He quickly uses his foot to slow himself down and turn, narrowly escaping crashing into the wall, and almost causing Keith to crash right into him. He managed to speed up again before that happened though.
“Try to keep up, babe!” Lance called behind him, giggling like an idiot.
Lance heard Keith let out a frustrated groan, and he doesn’t have to look back to know that he’s speeding up. Lance goes faster too. They round another corner, and another. Keith came close to passing him a few times, but for the most part, Lance stayed in first.
He could now see the checkout line, the two stanchions looking like the Holy Grail. Lance laughed like a maniac as he rammed right into the belt, knocking over both the stanchions as the rolling chair clattered on the ground. Lance laid on the floor, still laughing as he proclaimed, “I win!” with both fists in the air.
“Rematch!” Keith demanded. “I was totally about to pass you!”
“No can do, Keithy boy,” Lance laughed as he sat up, “I’m pretty sure I broke this chair.” Lance looked at the chair in front of him and—yep—there’s definitely a wheel missing from it.
“Shit,” Keith looked from the chair to the ground, and found the wheel next to one of the fallen stanchions. He picked it up and looked at Lance, “Should we, uh, fix it?”
Lance held his hand out to Keith, gesturing for him to give him the broken wheel. Lance grabbed the bottom of the chair and repositioned it to have a better look, he placed the peg connected to the wheel back from where it came from the chair and shoved it inside. “Fixed!”
Keith raised his eyebrow skeptically at Lance. “I don’t think it’s fixed.”
“Close enough!” Lance waved him off, flipping his hand. “Now, help me put this back.”
_________
12:03am
After they placed the chair back from where it came and swore to never speak of it to anyone, they made their way back to the front of the store, where Keith’s not-broken chair was. Lance suggested they could take turns pushing each other on the chairs throughout the store. It was no race, but it would be fun. Hunk would probably advise against it, but Hunk wasn’t here, was he?
“I go first!” Lance yelled in excitement once they made it to the checkout again.
“Why do you get to go first?” Keith asked as Lance charged forward and plopped on to the seat, sending it forward a few feet.
“Because I won!” Lance stated proudly, crossing his arms over his chest as he smirked at Keith.
“Fine,” Keith huffed grabbing the back of chair. A shiver rolled down Lance’s spine as Keith leaned in close to his ear and breathed, “Hold on tight, then.”
Lance laughed and screamed as Keith pushed him through the aisles. They were probably going faster than they should, but neither of them cared.
After almost knocking into another display, they decided to switch; and after actually knocking into a display, they decided to stop before they broke another chair.
They walked around the store for a little while, and then decided to collapse on one of the mattresses there. Laying on their backs, Lance scrolled through his phone as Keith shoved skittles into his mouth.
“We didn’t end up buying anything.” Keith said around a mouth full of candy.
Lance sighed and put his phone down. The battery was at fifteen percent, so he decided to leave it alone for now. “I know.” Lance looked up at the glaring florescent lights and moved his arm over his eyes to block them out.
“Hey, Lance?” Keith asked after he set his now empty bag of skittles aside.
“Hm?” Lance grunted from under his arm.
“Do you… do you think it was a mistake? Us moving in together?” Keith’s voice sounded so small, and he asked the question with such tentativeness, Lance was almost didn’t hear him.
“What? No!” Lance exclaimed, sitting up and looking at Keith. “Why?”
“It’s just that…” Keith trailed off. “I don’t know. This is the first serious relationship I’ve ever had.” Keith sat up on the mattress and looked to Lance. “What if we decide to break up? What if you get tired of me? Then what?”
“First of all, I would never get tired of you.” Lance said, grabbing Keith’s hand. “And I can’t see the future, but I don’t think we made a mistake.”
Keith gave him a small, fond smile. “Okay.”
Lance relaxed and laid on his back again.
“Besides,” Lance continued, placing his arm on his eyes again. “I wouldn’t consider moving in with you if I wasn’t planning on marrying you.” Wait—what did he just say?
“What?”
“I—I didn’t mean to—” Lance sputtered as he shot back up from his position.
“You want to marry me?” Keith said, a small smirk creeping onto his face.
“I mean, eventually.” Lance’s face felt like it was on fire. He sank back down onto his back.
Keith chuckled and leaned down to give Lance a quick kiss. “I want to marry you too. Eventually.” He added, smiling brightly at Lance.
Keith laid down next to Lance and snuggled up to him. “I’m tired.” He mumbled. “What time is it? My phone died like an hour ago.”
Lance checked his almost-dead phone. “It’s almost one.”
Keith didn’t say anything, just moved closer to Lance and rested his head on his chest.
“You gonna go to sleep?” Lance asked, wrapping his arm around him.
Keith nodded. Covering his eyes with his arm again, Lance closed eyes and let the dull music and the sound of Keith breathing lull him to sleep.
_________
10:54am
“Excuse me, sir?” Lance felt something poke his stomach. He opened his eyes in confusion and looked for the voice groggily. “Oh, sorry,” the stranger said, “You two have been laying here since I came in and I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“Huh?” What was happening? Where was he? Wha—oh. That’s right, they’re still in Ikea. “Uh, yeah we’re fine,” Lance said sleepily, fighting back a yawn. “Just, uh, testing this mattress out.” He patted the mattress they were laying on, just so she knew which mattress he was talking about.
“Alright, then. Sorry to disturb you.” She said as she walked away.
Lance looked to the sleeping figure next to him. Keith was curled up on the other side of the mattress, sleeping peacefully. Lance gently shook Keith’s shoulder to wake him up. “Keith, get up.”
“What?” Keith groaned, voice thick with sleep.
“We gotta go.”
“In a minute.” Keith rolled over and attempted to go back to sleep. But they’ve definitely overstayed their welcome, and the last thing that Lance wants is to get yelled at by one of the workers.
“C’mon Keith, get up.” Lance said, gently pulling Keith’s arm.
Keith whined but got up anyway. He wasn’t a morning person.
Lance gathered up all of the empty wrappers and bottles, handed a few to Keith, grabbed his boyfriend’s hand and led him to the registers. They came across the fort they made only to find it being dismantled by a few disgruntled and confused employees.
“Nope, not going that way.” Lance said under his breath as he turned down a different aisle. No need to walk by the mess they made.
They placed their trash in the checkout line and only got a somewhat confused stare from the cashier.
“We, uh, got hungry.” Lance explained, shrugging. The cashier only raised her eyebrows and told them their total. After paying for their empty snack bags, they tossed them in the trash outside the store and made their way to their car. Lance put the key in the ignition and leaned back. Keith stared blankly ahead, mind still foggy from sleep.
“Keith?”
“Yeah?”
“Let’s never do that again.”