Chapter Text
Pidge is the one who told Lance about the job.
The two of them had been sitting around and trying to study for their upcoming test in their Stars and Galaxies class. Lance liked the class, but learning all of the constellations in the Milky Way galaxy alone was quite a task. Pidge had seemed to master the subject so Lance had asked them to tutor Lance and help him study.
Long story short, after three hours of studying, Lance still unable to tell the difference between the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper. It shouldn’t have been that hard. One was big and the other was little.
“This is hopeless,” Lance said throwing his pencil down on the table in frustration. “Why do we even need this class?”
Pidge looked up from their text book and looked a little disheveled, mainly out of frustration from having to teach Lance the mere basics they’d been learning in class for months. “You’re the one who is choosing to want to be an astronaut.” Pidge rolled their eyes. “And you have to major in physical science.”
Lance pouted. “I hate this class.”
“And I hate tutoring you,” Pidge said with another eye roll. “It looks like we both have problems.” The hazel eyed student stood up from their seat and shut the astronomy book closed. “I’m heading out. My time is up.”
Lance gasped, a bit overdramatically. That long couldn’t have possibly passed already. “Oh, Pidge c’mon!” Lance complained, looking at his friend desperately. “I really need help in this class.”
Pidge shrugged, helplessly. “Sorry Lance,” Pidge said, not even close to sounding sorry. “I gotta run. My brother just returned home for vacation, I haven’t seen him in over a year.”
Lance sighed and nodded his head, closing up his notebook and packing up the notecards that Pidge had made him to help him out to study. Lance was going to study that night, he had to pass this next test no matter what.
“Wanna walk with me?” they asked as they put their backpack over their shoulder. “I’m gonna walk to the coffee shop across the street before going to the bus station.”
Lance blinked. “I didn’t know you liked coffee,” he commented as he continued to pack up his stuff.
Lance had actually known Pidge since high school. The two of them were pretty close friends, but for as long as Lance knew them, Pidge was not one to drink coffee.
“I don’t,” Pidge responded and grinned as Lance finished up and tossed his backpack over his shoulder. “I’m going cause Keith started his job at the coffee shop today.”
Lance’s heart stopped at those words.
Keith Kogane. Lance despised him.
Lance and Keith had been rival enemies since day one, Lance wasn’t sure what exactly started this rival. His friends Pidge and Hunk insisted that this rivalry was all in his head but Lance knew it was there and he knew that Keith knew it was there. The two of them were sworn enemies. It had always been like this and it would always be like this.
No matter how attractive he did look in his stupid red motorcycle jacket and his ugly mullet and his pretty sparkling eyes. Lance did not give a damn about those details, though, because Keith Kogane was the enemy .
Not to mention Lance was ten times hotter than Keith could ever dream to be.
“I didn’t know Keith got a job,” Lance said, casually.
Pidge started to walk out of the library. “He brought it up this morning. We all met up at breakfast, you didn’t know this because you overslept,” Pidge said as a matter of fact.
Lance gaped at Pidge. “I’m sorry,” he said as Pidge held the door open for him as he stepped outside into the quad. “Do you think that this beauty comes on it’s own?” Lance gestures to his own face. “I have to earn it.”
“And I see you still haven’t,” Pidge said with a nod of their head. “You poor child.”
Lance held back his crude remarks to the younger student. Pidge was only a year younger than Lance, but thanks to their advanced level of thinking, Pidge was able to pull off calling Lance a child. Lance couldn’t even complain, after all he was the one who still didn’t understand basic astronomy.
As the two friends walked over to the coffee shop, Lance found himself asking more and more questions, hoping to pry some answers out of Pidge about Keith. This wasn’t different from their usual conversations.
“He got the job from his mom.” Pidge glanced at Lance. “You remember her, right?”
Lance did remember her. She had been severely nice to him and everyone in their friend group. She was such a sweet woman and Lance had a feeling if she wanted to, she would kill anyone who dared to hurt her son.
“Krolia, right?” Lance asked looking both ways as the two crossed the street together. “Yeah, kind of.”
If Lance hadn’t known any better, it almost looked as if Pidge was smirking at him. “Uh huh. That’s right.” Pidge continued to walk. “Well she opened up the coffee place not too long back and Keith is a barista there.”
Lance smiled and nodded his head, his excitement for wanting to tease Keith endlessly over his job burning through him now. Pidge pointed out the place and Lance saw the sign that just said Legendary Coffee and Lance found himself walking a little faster as he walked through the door.
There was a couple of people in the place when Lance scanned around but the people weren’t what caught his attention, it was the establishment itself.
The ceiling was painted black and there was little lights that were shining brightly in the shape of stars. It lit up the place and here were lamps above each table with space designs on the lap covers. The tiles were sparkling black and shone and the vinyl silver and green booths stood out against the wall. Not to mention the center round tables which fascinated Lance, they were shaped like UFO’s.
Lance gasped as he looked around in shock and stopped as he found himself looking at the counter where he saw Keith Kogane himself in the flesh. His mullet hair pulled back into a small ponytail as he was making some sort of coffee. There was a display case of breads at the counter that looked amazing but Lance only had his focus on Keith. Keith always seemed to have Lance’s focus.
“What are you doing here?” Keith asked, walking out from behind the counter, finally noticing Lance. He was wearing a black apron with an odd style like a spacesuit on the apron.
Lance shook his head, pulling himself out of the trance he was in and put himself back into his confident personality once again and grinned as he walked over to the counter, Pidge now out of sight weirdly but Lance had no time to pay attention to that little detail.
“Well hello to you too, handsome,” Lance said with an eye roll, leaning himself against the counter.
Keith made a face and pulled out a notepad out of one of the pockets of his apron. Lance found himself admiring every movement he made and he it took him a moment for him to realize that Keith was talking to him.
Keith snapped his fingers under Lance's nose. “Hello?” Keith waved his hand in front of Lance’s face. “Earth to Lance? Do you copy?”
Lance smacked Keith’s hand out of his face and onto the the counter. “Did I scare you?” Lance said, grinning like he had orchestrated the plan.
“No,” Keith said without hesitation. “I was hoping you would’ve been brain dead and I could’ve gotten away without having to see you ever again.” There was a moment of silence, Lance looking at Keith, a bit offended by his words. Keith sighed. “I’m kidding.” His pen hovered over his notepad. “What do you want to order?”
Lance thought for a moment, his eyes looking up at a menu that was behind Keith. “Uh… what do you have?” he asked after a moment looking back at Keith.
Keith’s dark eyes stared at Lance and a look passed over his features, like that was the dumbest thing question he had ever heard in the past twenty years of being alive. “Coffee,” Keith responded.
Lance flared at Keith. “I got that,” he said. “What kind of coffee do you have?”
“The kind you drink.”
“You think you’re a real smart guy don’t you, Kogane?”
Keith shrugged and put his notepad away. “Let me just surprise you. You can have it on me.” Keith turned away from him and grabbed a large cup silently.
Lance wanted to argue but he got instantly distracted once again, watching as Keith began to grind up coffee beans and create the drink for Lance. You can have it on me .
If Lance didn’t know any better, he would have assumed Keith was flirting with him. Lance didn’t know any better though and had a feeling Keith was just doing a nice friendly gesture. The two may have been enemies but they still hung out in the same friend group, not to mention that the two of them were majoring in the same subject and had the same end goal.
To travel to space.
To see beyond their little planet.
“I didn’t know you drank coffee,” Keith said, breaking the silence. His eyes were fixated on the drink he was making Lance.
“I don’t…” Lance said with a shrug, glancing behind him towards the door, still not having returned from whatever they were doing. “Pidge told me about the job and I thought it would be cool to come check out the place.” Lance looked around once again, admiring the scenery. “It’s really cool.”
Keith nodded his head. “Thanks. Shiro helped my mom design the place.”
Takashi Shirogane. He was a close family friend of Keith’s and took care of him after Keith’s father died when he was only a child. His mother only recently came back into his life but Lance knew he was having a difficult time trying to keep up with everything in his life.
“Well it looks pretty awesome,” Lance continued to compliment. “It’s pretty unique. Do you guys have some really funny names for your drinks?”
Keith smiled a bit, glancing at Lance. “You tell me. Shiro came up with more than half the names on the menu, Adam came up with the other half.”
Lance grinned and nodded his head looking at the menu naming off some of the drinks The Milky Way (milkshake), Halley’s Mocha (a frappuccino, Lance got a kick out of that one), Asteroid Brew (a cold brew), and the list went on. They were all terrible and Lance had a feeling that Keith was the real culprit behind most of these.
And Adam. Lance had only met Shiro’s fiancé a few times but that man had the tendency to make terrible puns.
“These are all terrible,” Lance concluded. “Next time try harder.”
“Shut up.”
Keith handed Lance over a drink that was covered in whipped cream and had a caramel drizzle over the top. Lance admired the delicacy that went into creating the drink. Lance looked at Keith. “What is this one called?”
Keith shrugged his shoulders. “I never named it. It’s something I usually make myself. A secret off the menu item.” He smiled at Lance. “Try it.”
So, Lance did and instantly the Cuban boy found himself being overwhelmed by the amount of caffeine that the drink seemed to contain along with the amount of sugar. It tasted delicious . Lance looked over at Keith who was watching him in anticipation for his reaction and Lance tilted his head a bit. “This is really strong,” Lance admitted.
“Yeah,” Keith said with a nod of his head grinning. “I know. It’s supposed to be like that.” Keith turned his attention away from Lance as another customer walked into the building. It was a couple of students clearly having just gotten out of their most recent class. Keith led them over to a booth and started taking their orders. Lance looked down at his coffee cup and smiled lightly.
Keith may have not been the greatest at holding conversations, he may have also been Lance’s so-called “rival”, but Lance had a feeling he was going to end up coming to Legendary Coffee a lot more often than he probably would ever admit to.
Months had gone by at this point since Keith got his job at Legendary Coffee . It had been months since Lance started making his daily rounds to Legendary Coffee before and after class. After two months of doing it he even earned himself a job there. Krolia had noticed how much time Lance spent at the coffee shop and thought it was appropriate to let Lance try to work there for some time. Not that Keith minded, in fact at this point Keith really didn’t mind when Lance made his way over in the morning or when his mom asked the two of them to lock up the shop for her. Keith had been pretty much wanting to get closer to Lance ever since the two of them met each other at their first day of their Stars and Galaxies class back in August. Now it was easier, and Keith found himself thanking whatever higher being was out there looking out for him.
It wasn’t that Keith found Lance cute , because Lance McClain was not cute . He was attractive in some forms but that wasn’t why Keith didn’t mind Lance. Lance was just the only person who listened to Keith. Shiro listened to Keith, sure, but Keith didn’t realize how much he needed a friend his age. Someone he could confide in and call his ‘best friend’. Lance still acted strange around Keith, for sure, acting very competitive regarding grades and such, but the two of them got along extremely well. Lance would even flirt with Keith, which was odd enough on it’s own but in reality…
… Keith liked when Lance flirted with him.
It just fit.
It was December, the last day of the semester before everyone went on break. Lance had announced earlier that week and said he wasn’t going to be able to make it after class but wanted to make one more round in the morning to Legendary Coffee , for one last time.
“I’m flying home for the holidays,” Lance said, leaning against the counter, taking a sip of his coffee, he looked bright and chipper that morning and Keith could see that the idea of him going to see his family was an exciting prospect for him. Keith couldn’t help but smile a bit in return. “I’m excited to hang out with all my siblings and cousins again. I haven't seen them in a long time.”
“That’s cool,” Keith responded. He didn’t work in the mornings, but he was a bit of a caffeine addict and needed his daily dose in the morning. ”I’m happy for you.”
Lance smiled brightly and nodded, taking another sip from his drink. “What are you doing for the holidays?”
Keith shrugged. “Be at home. Work. We’re celebrating this year with Adam and Shiro. So, you know, that’ll be fun.”
Lance beamed. “That’s cool.”
Keith nodded and he seemed a bit nervous, he kept tapping his fingers against his cup of coffee, his black eyes flicking over to his backpack that sat beside his feet behind the counter. “Um..” Keith seemed reluctant and his cheeks began to dust pink in embarrassment at what he was planning to do. What he had already done. “So… I got you something. A present.” Keith put his drink down on the counter as he squat down and began to open up his backpack and pulled out a poorly wrapped box. It was wrapped in a black metallic type wrapping paper, it was twelve inches in length and Keith found himself thinking this was probably going to be the dumbest present in the world. He handed it to Lance.
Lance blinked in surprise as he put his own drink down beside Keith’s and took the present from Keith silently and slowly a grin came on his face. “I got you something too, man,” Lance said. He put the boc down and pulled his backpack off of his shoulders and reached in and pulled out a box of his own, then, another. Two presents and Keith felt his heart skip a beat because you don’t just get someone more than one present, yet here was Lance, presenting him with two.
They were wrapped perfectly, like Lance had spent his time wrapping Keith’s presents.
“Oh,” Keith said with a bit more blush rising in his cheeks. “Thank you…”
Together, the two college students opened up their gifts and Keith was a bit touched by what he saw and a bit… underwhelmed. Not because of the present itself but because it was the exact same gift that he got Lance.
Lance looked up from his gift and Keith made eye contact with him and both started laughing in mild amusement. “Well this is unexpected,” Lance said grinning.
The gift that the two friends had bestowed upon each other was a portable coffee cup that was black and had glitter, like it was the stars, and said YOU ARE OUT OF THIS WORLD.
“Very,” Keith agreed looking at the cup. “Now we have matching coffee cups.”
Lance touched a hand to his heart. “We can drink coffee together in class!” Lance said excitedly beaming.
“Oh my gosh,” Keith mumbled with a small chuckle.
Lance chuckled and beamed brightly looking at Keith as he held his coffee cup to his chest like he absolutely adored the gift. “Open the cup. There’s another present inside.”
Keith looked at the cup and he silently opened it up out of the box it was in, he pulled the cup out. It felt a little heavier then how Keith remembered it felt in his hands when he was at Target buying the gift. When he opened the cup he saw there was some black material inside and Keith pulled it out, figuring out it was an apron… that said KISS THE BARISTA.
“I’m not wearing this,” Keith declared, putting it in his lap.
“Why not?” Lance asked, laughing. “I saw it and I thought of you
“I’m not flattered.” Keith picked up the other present and noticed it was significantly smaller, like it held jewelry or something inside. Keith thought Lance got him a gag gift, women’s earrings or something but when he opened the box he saw it was a bracelet, but different than what he was originally expecting.
It was a rope bracelet and it had little beads that represented the planets. Lance leaned forward and pointed out the different planets and saying what stone was representing what planet. He pulled it out of the box quietly, putting his cup down and put it around Keith’s wrist and tightened it, making sure the bracelet wouldn’t slip off his hand. “And,” Lance said when he got it on, “the sun isn’t on the bracelet because you are the sun.”
Keith groaned. “That is so cheesy.”
Lance laughed and turned his head when Krolia said that the two of them should get going to class or they would be late. That was when their moment ended.
That day after school, Keith had work and he found himself being a little down while he worked. Lance wasn’t around for the first time and Keith hadn’t realized it until that moment that Lance hanging around the place was something that Keith looked forward to. He liked when after closing the two of them could just mess around with each other and now… Lance wasn’t there.
Keith was washing the blender and the other utensils that people used for their dessert products that they bought to eat in the shop. The shop was silent, the only sound being the water running.
Krolia walked in silently, her phone in hand and she looked at Keith, seeming to notice that something was up with him. Keith was always upset, that never changed, but this time his mood was different it was more… melancholy .
“You have a crush on that boy don’t you?” Krolia asked Keith, looking at him as he continued to wash the dishes silently. She had her arms crossed over her chest as she leaned on the wall by the sink.
“I thought mothers had an intuition,” Keith said, continuing to scrub on one of the trays that had a dried frosting stain on it. “Can’t you figure it out?” Keith’s cheeks had turned red at the question, because no he didn’t have crush on Lance. That was ridiculous.
Krolia was quiet for a moment as she continued to watch her son and a slow smile spread on her lips as she watched Keith, a sly look passing in her eyes. “You’re in love with him aren’t you?”
Keith didn’t respond.
Because she was right . He had known it for a while… he just couldn’t find it in himself to try and ask Lance on a date. So instead, he thought giving Lance the coffee cup would explain it.
He hadn’t told Lance, but he had put a letter in the cup. It was a simple but effective one.
He just hoped Lance wouldn’t reject him.
The letter:
Dear Lance,
Merry Christmas.
So, this may have came as a complete surprise to you. I just didn’t want you to read it in front of me because I knew you were either going to either tear this up in front of me or worse. So, I figured you should open this in your own time.
I’m not sure how to phrase this, but I’ll try. I’ll be blunt.
I have a crush on you.
Well, not a crush. I really like you. A lot. More than a crush would feel like.
I’m not sure how you feel but that’s how I’m feeling. Now, before you try to call me, please don’t. I’d rather wait for you to tell me to my face instead of over the phone.
Have a good holiday, Lance.
Sincerely, Keith