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It started as a survival instinct.
Or that was what he understood when he saw James go pale at the sight of his girlfriend entering the cafeteria, and Keith had the misfortune to be there thanks to the insistence of his actual partner for the final project, James himself.
“Shit,” he muttered below his breath lowering his head, snatching Keith’s menu from his hands.
“Hey,” he was about to snap, but seeing him covering his face with the menu, clearly wanting to hide from the one who was avoiding with his eyes, Keith made himself swallow up his cursing and lift his eyebrows, “Wow, that’s the first time I’ve hear you swearing.”
James glared at him because of the mocking and Keith tried to see over his shoulder to see from whom he was hiding.
“Your girlfriend?” he asked when he saw her searching from the entrance, trying to get on her tiptoes with her already high heel shoes, “Weren’t you two so in love some days ago?”
“She cheated on me with the captain of the soccer team,” James spat out, staring insistently at the tea section, “I broke up with her and she keeps texting me ever since.”
“You broke up with her in a text?” Keith questioned turning to him and snatching back his menu.
“Of course not,” he answered rolling his eyes and scoffing, “But she thinks I’m just being dramatic when I found out about her sleeping with Lance."
Keith nodded and hummed, as if he was paying attention.
“You’re not interested, are you?” James pointed out bitterly, still hiding between his shoulders and talking in whispers.
“Not even a little, Griffin,” he responded easily, “I’m here because of the aeronautics paper, not to hear you complain about your failed relationship with Rizavi.”
James rolled back his eyes and shook his head, taking a sip from his coffee.
“If I didn’t intercept you in the parking lot, I knew you wouldn’t show up again until the last day with a project entirely yours.”
Keith shrugged.
“It worked out before,” he huffed, “Thereby, I won’t have to work with you and you won’t have to work with me.”
James huffed, looking up a bit and suddenly snapping down his face.
“Shit! She saw me!”
Keith frowned and looked over his shoulder, seeing Rizavi walking up to them while pushing away the crowd.
“Your sentence is coming,” he commented with a grin, “Your only way out is letting me go and escaping by yourself.”
“She won’t let me in peace even if I escape,” he complained, contradictorily glancing around and looking for an exit, “And don’t think I will let you go this time, Kogane, you already gave me plenty trouble last year.”
“Well, you have not much choice,” he said leaning in the table and smirking widely, “Unless you want to confront her.”
James glared, and then his expression went softer, blinking a few times. Keith lifted a brow.
“What?”
“I’m sorry about this.”
The question died in his mouth before he voiced it out, James’ lips stopping his with a quick touch, much gentler than he imagined. Because, yes, Keith had imagined kissing James Griffin.
And even when that was everything he wanted, the bitter taste of knowing it was just to save his ass had pierced right through him.
“James?”
They got away, looking to where Rizavi was standing now, just beside their table.
“Nadia,” James blurted out eloquently, and Keith looked down, suddenly too conscious of the hand holding his nape, “what are you doing here?”
There was silence for a moment, and Keith glanced up wanting to know why she was taking so long to answer, finding the raging glare full of poison from the girl.
“What’s happening here?” she asked in an indignant tone, “Are you going out with this...?”
Misfit? Boring? Nerd? It didn’t matter. Keith was already used to any other name they put him. And Rizavi didn’t finish the question.
“He... uh...”
Brilliant, Griffin. Really.
“I just confessed,” Keith invented looking at her in the eye, his hand searching for the one still in his hair and gripping it briefly.
Rizavi opened her mouth, and he knew James was staring at him incredulous.
“Is that true?!”
James flinched, his eyes getting away from Keith to look at her, mouthing for a bit.
“Yes,” he muttered, and Keith sighed quietly, lowering the hand that was holding James’ to the table for them to be seen by the girl and anybody who looked in their direction.
“And you said yes?” she asked gritting her teeth, “And you kissed him?! Still being in a relationship with me?!”
“Hey...!”
“James is not with you anymore,” Keith interrupted standing up and glaring at her, “And maybe if you haven’t had sex with McClain, he would have given you an opportunity.”
“That isn’t your business!”
“It is now,” he answered lifting their entwined hands and smiling with smugness, “You’re talking to his new boyfriend, bitch.”
She mouthed, trying to come back at him with anything, and James was still silent, unbelieving of what was happening.
“Come on, James,” Keith said reaching for his backpack and pulling his hand slightly for him to get up, “In the library we will be more peaceful.”
James scoffed, finishing his coffee in a swallow and taking his own backpack.
“Ah, one more thing,” Keith added turning to James and taking him from his neck, catching his lips in a more lasting and longing kiss than the first, the same bitterness in his stomach repeating itself and something sweeter in his mouth appearing when he was kissed back.
“Keith...” James gasped over his lips and Keith had to bite off a smile.
“With that one it’s two kisses out of your relationship,” he said seeing Rizavi, her impact expression making him huff, “Would you like to see a third one?”
The girl stormed out of the cafeteria in angry steps, the people that had stopped to see the act opening up a path for her while they laughed at her. And Keith turned in his heel to go to the other exit, pulling James with him until they were in the sidewalk and away from curious eyes and ears.
“That was...” he heard James mutter when Keith let go of his hand, “Thanks...”
“Thanks?” Keith spat out, turning to him and crossing his arms, “I got a price, Griffin.”
James shrugged, and a little sparkle of hope lighted up in his chest.
“And what do you want in exchange?” he asked shaking his head, as if an intrusive thought had come to his head and he needed to scare it away.
“I made a drama to your ex-girlfriend in front of half the campus,” he said rolling his eyes, “Now all the school will think we are together.”
James sighed heavily.
“Well, what do you want?”
‘Go out with me for real,’ he wanted to say, biting his tongue at how ridiculous that would sound.
“Let me do all the project,” he said looking away to a solitaire tree beside the building, “I’ll explain it to you one day before the presentation and we both will lay it out.”
“Isn’t that as if you were helping me?”
Keith scoffed.
“Believe me, you’re helping me.”
~
He had refugee in the library for two continuous days, and the attendants, when they saw him with no intention to go out in a few more days and the mess of books he did was too much, they decided to ban him from all the libraries in the campus to avoid more work.
He ended up locked in his room, squinting at the screen of his laptop in the dark while he tapped furiously, the project following him up every hour of the day and even in the short hours he deigning to take as naps.
Yes, he himself had asked James to let him make all the project by himself to avoid be with him more time than necessary, but it had started to become a headache having to consider every aspect from every angle.
He huffed and reached for his coffee, hearing a knock on his bedroom door. He ignored it thinking it was his roommate again asking him to at least go downstairs to eat, but the knock went louder.
“Don’t worry, Hunk,” he said over his shoulders without taking his eyes from the screen, “I’ll take something from the fridge later.”
The door opened and Keith chugged.
“I told you that I’ll-”
His words went to a halt, his eyes not believing seeing James standing in the threshold with what looked like a bag of chips and a couple of drinks.
“I knew you lived in a cave,” he commented looking around and narrowing his eyes to his figure only illuminated by the screen of his laptop.
“What are you doing here?” he asked turning in his chair and hissing when James turned on the lights, “I thought I told you that I’ll do all the project.”
“You said it, yeah,” he muttered closing the door and starting to walk by the shelfs in his room, “But I still know it’s too much to do, and even you have problems with the calculus.”
Keith rolled back his eyes.
“I don’t need your help.”
“Okay.”
He heard his bed dip down below James weight and turned immediately, seeing him look through one of the books he took from his shelf.
It was Keith’s favorite.
“And what?” he growled, “You’re going to stay here to annoy me?”
“I didn’t come to pick up a fight, Kogane,” he started looking the cover of the book and then the back, “Remember when you kissed me in the cafeteria after I kissed you?”
Keith remembered it too well.
“What about that?”
“If we’re going to be ‘boyfriends’, at least it has to be believable,” he sighed and opened the book again, “So, congratulations: You’re in a date with me.”
Keith narrowed his eyes and looked down to the bag of chips.
“What an honor.”
James rolled his eyes.
“I won’t annoy you, okay?” he assured laying down between the pillows and sighing when he got comfortable, “Keep working and I’ll leave you alone in a couple of hours.”
Keith winced and turned again to his computer, rereading a few lines and hearing James open up the bag of chips.
At least with James in his bed it was even less tempting go to sleep. Or maybe even more tempting.
~
Keith sighed heavily, glaring at James while he took a seat beside him in the dining hall.
“Are you for real?” he grumbled closing the book he was reading and James shrugged.
“How is the project doing?”
“Perfect. Thank you very much.”
“Hey, I know you haven’t slept in days,” James huffed, “But you don’t have to be so rude.”
Keith opened his mouth to swear, but the little sound of a cup against the table made him look down.
“I brought you tea,” James said pushing the cardboard cup to him, “It’s peppermint.”
“I need coffee, not tea,” Keith mumbled wrinkling his nose, “Peppermint? What are you, a grandpa?”
James rolled his eyes.
“It’ll be better than coffee,” he assured with a crooked curve in his mouth, and Keith thought he was containing a smirk, “And no. I don’t have kids nor grandkids. Not that I know.”
Now Keith huffed to avoid laughing.
“James Griffin, answering a joke with another,” he announced taking the cup, “someone kill me.”
This time he could hear him chuckle shortly, but he hid his smile with the edge of his cup.
“How do I know it’s not poisoned?” he wondered doubting, shaking the cup a bit, and James puffed, taking the tea and having a sip before handing it over.
“Enough?”
Keith looked the tea warily, and then to James.
“I don’t know, does it have a delayed effect?”
“Do you want the tea or not?”
Keith huffed and made a gesture with his hand, abetting to have a taste and sighing at it.
“Told you.”
He glared at James and lowered the cup, resisting the want to finish it in a swallow or throw it over his companion.
“Then,” he murmured taking a quick glance to their surroundings and noticing the curious expressions to both of them, “a date?”
“Something like that,” James responded with the same wariness, giving a glance to the book Keith had in closed, “It’s called spending time with each other, something creatures of your class aren’t used to.”
Keith hummed.
“And what class of creature am I?”
“I don’t know, a bat?”
He scoffed, staring at him for a moment before looking back to his closed book.
“Keith, if you need help with the project...”
“Everything’s fine, James, thanks.”
He got a resigned sigh.
~
A knock to his door and Keith stopped writing, looking over his shoulder to James in the threshold, his fist near the wood.
“Another date?” he asked in a dreamy and tremendously fake tone.
“Another date,” he answered closing the door behind him and slumping his shoulders, “Your roommate knows we’re dating or that it’s fake?”
“Hunk?” he doubted vaguely, bringing back his attention to his computer and finishing tipping the paragraph, “I guess so, but he hadn’t asked me, I think because he’d seen me too busy.”
James hummed for a moment, walking to him and leaving a package of cookies in his desk while he leaned over to see what Keith was writing. Keith had to stop breathing.
“But I think your surprise visits had answered his questions,” he commented glancing to the cookies.
“Over here it’s better if you direct the objective to something more concrete.”
Keith looked to what he was pointing, mumbling.
“I told you I didn’t need help.”
“I’m not making you take it,” James said simply, taking a few steps back and taking the book he read every time he went to Keith’s room, “You decide if you want an excellent mark or a mediocre one.”
Keith huffed and took the cookies, opening the package with more force than necessary.
~
“Can I look?”
Keith rolled back his eyes and pushed the screen of his laptop for James to see while he finished drinking the tea his dear fake boyfriend had brought him. Fake with all the bitterness possible. Dear with all the sadness in the world.
“It’s not finished, but I think I can give you a teaser trailer,” he said licking his lips and sighing, “It only needs a few details, actually. Maybe I finish it tonight.”
“Keith, this...”
He got confused when he heard his voice so soft, and he had to look at him to make sure, his surprised expression twisting up his guts furiously.
“This is brilliant.”
A sense of proudness formed itself in his chest, and he couldn’t help smiling at it.
“Of course,” he said lifting a brow, “I made it.”
James scoffed because of the smugness, going through the document and his smile getting wider. Keith stared at him more than he had to.
“You’ll really have it for tonight?”
“Maybe in the early morning.”
“I don’t doubt it.”
Keith had to swallow.
~
Keith stretched his arms over his head, the crack in his back letting him free from the tension of being all day in front of the computer.
“James,” he called him turning in the chair and stopping his words when he saw him fast asleep.
He had Keith’s favorite book opened in his lap and his head was comfortable leaned in on one of his pillows, his paused and peaceful breathing letting out little sighs from his slightly opened lips.
Keith could live with that image forever.
But he couldn’t let him sleep over, knowing that his mind needed rest and that having one beside him will give him something else and very different than rest. He had to wake him up, show him the project and tell him they would practice the presentation in a more decent hour of the day.
He stood up and walked to him, doubting between call his name or shake him up.
“James?” he murmured leaning and pushing his shoulder, “Hey, James.”
His breath was still calm, and Keith let himself look at his relaxed face, like really look at him, his eyelashes shivering briefly and his lips looking so damn tempting.
And he knew he shouldn’t, especially because he had spent three years of his career making the rest of the world believe that he hated James Griffin when in reality he wanted him. He knew he shouldn’t because they weren’t more than final project partners and fake boyfriends, which ruined all the work he had done since the beginning and now everyone thought that they loved each other.
Although, well, maybe they were right about Keith.
He sighed, leaning over him and hovering over his lips, the exhaustion wearing him out to the point he couldn’t fight his want to kiss him again, and he left a little caress in the edge of his mouth.
It was bitter. But this time a bit sweeter than the last time.
Charmed by it, he heaved another sigh and lowered once again, this time kissing him firmer and steadier and feeling him kiss him back vaguely through dreams.
He knew he didn’t have any right to be doing that, and the fact that they had kissed before doesn’t meant he could do it again without consent. But he had found ease in the kiss, as if he was lost in the desert all his life and James was the oasis he had always looked for.
He contained a noise in the back of his throat, and he knew that if he continued, he won’t be able to sleep without visiting the bathroom, so he got away a bit and groaned heavily, his forehead glued to James’ to stop himself from kissing him again.
“Get your damned sanity back, Keith,” he scolded himself below his breath, and he flinched when he felt a hand sliding up his neck.
“I knew it,” he heard him mutter before being pulled down and kissed slowly, fisting the sheets at the caress in his lower back, “I knew it...”
“Knew what?” he blurted out bitterly to avoid the sweetness of the kiss arrive to his heart.
“You like me.”
Keith felt himself pale and suddenly go beet red.
“W-what?” he blabbed trying to get away but an arm circling his waist keeping him in place, “What are you talking about? It was you who kissed me asleep.”
“I wasn’t asleep.”
He gasped, feeling it like a hit to his gut.
“W-what? B-but-”
“Don’t make excuses,” he whispered in his lips, kissing him a couple of times before sighing softly, “It’s not necessary.”
Keith wanted to ask, but another kiss shut him up, a kiss much longer and deeper to almost steal his breath.
“I like you, too.”
He hissed, feeling abruptly desperate, and he climbed over the bed to cradle him and kiss him more roughly, moving against him and trapping his head between his hands to keep him in his reach.
“I like you...”
“Yeah...” James breathed fascinated, his eyes sparkling every time Keith looked at them through kisses, “I know.”
A kiss and a caress.
“I like you, too, Keith...”
And since the bitterness disappeared and made place to the sweetest and purest taste he had ever had, he knew he could never leave it.