Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

People slowly spilled into the café for their morning coffee and breakfast. Keith finishes taking an order from a customer when the café's front door swings open, he looks up to see a really tall and slender boy walk into the cafe. The boy had tanned skin with deep blue eyes and brown wavy hair. He was wearing dark blue jeans and a white T-shirt with a blue jacket to keep him warm. Keith sighs heavily, turning around to make coffee.

"You left without me!" His childhood friend hisses at him.

"Good morning to you too, Lance. And really? The first thing you do after walking into my café is yell at me? And for the record, I tried to wake you up two times."

"The third time's the charm, Keith."

Keith quickly gives Lance his black coffee. "Okay, next time I will try to wake you up three times before I leave."

"You better. Oh, and I will have sausage and eggs."

"Lance, you are supposed to open your shop at seven and its already way past it. You don't have time for sausage and eggs." Keith points out.

"It's fine. Before coming here, I put up a notice in front of the shop saying it will only open at eight today. So, yeah don't worry. I still have time."

"You still have to prepare the shop and arrange the flowers. There isn't much time left until nine."

"Dude relax, my shop is literally right next to your café. I have time for breakfast."

"Fine."

The raven-haired boy walks into the kitchen. "Hunk, can I get one sausage and egg sandwich?"

The huge, dark man behind the cooking stove looks back and says, "Sure, Keith. And I am guessing from your expression this order is for Lance?"

"Yeah...Um, what kind of expression am I wearing?"

"An expression that screams you are done with Lance's nonsense." Hunk chuckles softly. "But never mind that, shouldn't he be opening his shop by now?"

"He is opening his shop at eight today." Hunk turns around and slightly raises his eyebrows questioningly. "He slept in," Keith replies.

"Oh, I see," Hunk and Lance worked at the same part-time job a few years back, and it was Lance who introduced him to Keith. Hunk is a great cook and happily agreed to work at Keith's cafe, and Keith desperately needed help.

"Here you go, one sausage and egg with cheddar cheese and no tomato. Say hi to Lance for me."

"Okay," Keith replies and heads back. "Here's your sandwich and Hunk says hi."

"Thank you, Keith.” Lance says while starting to eat his sandwich.

"Good morning, dorks." Keith looks up to see a small figure appear behind Lance. The girl had short messy brown hair and was wearing round eyeglasses.

"Hey, Pidge." Lance cheerful greets her.

"Good morning," Keith says. "What can I get for you, Pidge?"

"I will just have a coffee," Pidge replies.

"No breakfast? We still have time before the shop opens." Lance says.

"Nah, I already ate. I had lots of time to make my breakfast today. Thanks to a certain someone being lazy and sleeping in." Lance rolls his eyes at this.

"Here you go, Pidge." Keith gives Pidge her coffee. "You guys seriously need to get going though. You have exactly fifteen minutes to get to the shop and get everything ready before the customers start arriving."

Lance looks at the time and says, "He's right Pidge. We should leave."

Pidge quickly finishes her coffee and jumps off her chair. "Okay, let's go, boss." The pair says their goodbyes to Keith and promptly walks out of the café and to the shop right next door.

As soon as Lance opens his shop the scent of flowers wafts through his nose. Lance and Pidge start the preparations to open the shop, and they quickly get it over with. Soon enough three girls walk into the shop.

"Good morning." Lance quickly greets them. "How may I help you, beautiful girls?"

The short girl in the middle slightly chuckles and says, "My friend over here wants to get some flowers. It's her mom's birthday." She points to a pale girl with black hair who stood at her right side. The girl's features were so similar to Keith's. Lance couldn’t help but compare. Keith's still prettier, though. Lance thinks to himself. Keith's silky black hair contrasts his soft pale skin beautifully, and Lance always finds his violet eyes to be mesmerizingly mysterious. He always knew his childhood friend was a handsome boy, though he will never admit it to Keith even if his life depended on it.

"Is there a specific kind of flower you are looking for?" Lance asks the black-haired girl.

"Um, not really..." The girl replies awkwardly.

"How about you give your mom a bouquet?" The third girl suggests.

"Yeah, sure." She says looking at Lance.

"Okay, so what kind of flower do you want for the bouquet?"

"Um, an assorted mix would be nice."

"Gotcha," Lance replies. "Please wait for a few minutes."

Lance walks into the backroom where Pidge was arranging the flowers in order. "Pidge get me these flowers." He hands her a paper and walks to the preparation table to prepare the bouquet for his customer. Pidge quickly scrambles off to find the flowers Lance needed.

"Here you go," Pidge comes back a few minutes later and carefully lays out all the flowers Lance had asked for.

"Thanks, Pidge."

"No problem," Pidge replies. "That girl out there looks an awful lot like Keith, doesn't she?"

"Really? I didn't notice." Lance replies nonchalantly while carefully arranging the flowers into a bouquet.

"Oh really?" Pidge asks sarcastically. Lance looks up at her and chuckles.

"How is it?" He says pointing to the bouquet.

Pidge simply shrugs and says, "Same as always I guess." Lance raises his eyebrows questioningly. "It's beautiful, Lance."

"Why thank you," Lance looks at his work proudly. He had chosen a wide range of bright coloured beautiful flowers to make the bouquet. Satisfied with his work, he walks back to the girls and gives the black-haired girl the bouquet. "One assorted mix for you and I will give it to you--"

"That will be fifty dollars." Pidge interrupts him, walking towards the cash counter. The black-haired girl follows and pays Pidge the money.

"Thank you. Please come again." Pidge says as the girls leave the shop.

"Pidge, I was gonna give her a discount," Lance complains.

"I know. That's why I stopped you.” Pidge says. “You are seriously gonna go out of business if you give a discount to every pretty two-legged creature that walks through that door."

“Girls and boys should be appreciated for their good looks," Lance replies. Pidge narrows her eyes, shaking her head at him.

At twelve, Pidge finishes her shift, and she leaves to go to her classes. Pidge is a computer genius, she is still in college taking a computer engineering program. Pidge helps out in the flower shop because Lance asked her to. For the most part, Lance can handle everything in the shop by himself, but he has trouble in the morning, and that's why he asked Pidge to be a part-timer at his shop. She is strictly there to help him get through the morning rush. And like every other day, the rest of the day goes by smoothly as the customers come in and out. It was just another typical day…

Chapter Text

At 9 pm, Keith closes his café and walks into Lance's flower shop. As usual, when he enters the little shop, the smell of flowers fills his nose, calming him. The scent of flowers always helped him relax, they made him feel like he was home. It was probably because they reminded him of his mother. His mother loved flowers, when she was alive their home used to be filled with flowers outside and inside alike. Keith smiles at the memory of his mother and her obsession with flowers.

"And what might you be smiling about?"

Keith looks up to see Lance behind the cash counter. "Nothing. Are you ready to leave?"

"Yeah. Let me just grab something." Lance quickly walks into the back room and comes back wearing a blue jacket, he had a white rose in his hand which he holds out towards Keith. The ravenette frowns, raising an eyebrow at Lance whose cheeks were painted faintly red. "It's for you, idiot."

"Yeah, I can see that. But why?" Keith asks confused.

"I didn't bring any flowers to the café today morning. So, here." Lance pushes the white rose towards him. Keith looks at Lance and is a little shocked but mostly just amused by his awkward expression. He looks at the beautiful white rose in Lance's hands and smirks.

"I like the colour red." He says but still takes the rose from Lance. Honestly, Keith was happier than he would like to admit.

"Don't push it, Mullet." His childhood friend mutters to him. Childhood friends, huh? Is that what we are? Keith thinks to himself.

They definitely used to be childhood friends. Keith still remembers the time when they were kids and used to go to the same school and when their families used to get together. They were best friends and rivals, they did everything together, they were partners in crime. They grew up together and knew each others' secrets and everything. In high school, some people even envied their friendship. Nothing and no one was able to get in between their friendship. But something did break them apart, and it was Keith's fault.

When he was in his last year of high school, his parents died in an accident, and he distanced himself from everyone he knew. The shock of both his parents dying so suddenly messed him up and running away from everyone who loved him and isolating himself for two years did not help. When he came back, he was still messed up, it was Lance who picked up the pieces. But things were never the same between them, a lot of things had changed within two years. For one, Keith realized his feelings for Lance when he was away from him, but he is still confused by what those feelings mean.

Lance, on the other hand, had made it perfectly clear how hurt and angry he was when Keith had left without saying a single word. And Keith knows that Lance still hasn't forgiven him for leaving. Despite that, Lance helped Keith deal with everything, and because of him, Keith was able to come back to his senses. Keith re-opened his dad's café which he had inherited from his parents' will, and Lance took over his family's flower shop at about the same time. Somehow, they ended up living together, and now here they are, two twenty-year-olds walking home together.

"You wanna have some drinks before going back to the apartment," Lance asks, snapping Keith out of his thoughts.

"Sure. It's Friday anyway." Keith replies and catches Lance staring at him. "What?"

"Are you alright?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know," Lance shoves his hands into his jacket's pockets. "You were spacing out just now."

"No, I wasn't." Keith snaps back.

"Jeez, alright. I get it." They walk in silence for a few minutes.

"Sorry, I was..." Keith starts to say.

"You was...what?"

"...I was just thinking about the past." Lance turns and frowns at him, knowing that Keith tended to get depressed when thinking about his past. "It's nothing you have to worry about. I was just thinking about how I got here. After everything I have been through, I am just really proud of my accomplishments."

"Wow, so you were flattering yourself?" Lance smirks, and Keith rolls his eyes.

A few minutes later, they reach Voltron, and as expected of a Friday night, the fancy bar was packed with people. Loud music was being played, and people were blasting off to it on the dance floor. The bar was very lavish and high-class. Typically, they would not be able to come to a bar this expensive but lucky for them they knew the owner.

Lance and Keith walk up to the counter towards the very handsome owner who was warmly smiling at them. He was a tall, well- built Asian man with black hair that was shaved into an undercut with white bangs.

"Hi, Shiro." Lance cheerfully greets the man.

"Hey guys, how was your day?"

"The usual," Keith replies. "Lance slept in and was late to open his shop today. I guess that's something different."

"What happened?" Shiro asks giving them their drinks

"Keith didn't wake me up," Lance complains.

"I am not your mother, Lance!"

"Whaaaaaaat?" Lance makes a shocked expression. "I thought you were." Keith shakes his head at Lance's lame attempt at joking and takes a sip from his drink.

Shiro smiles at the boys' small exchange. Shiro is Keith's cousin and the only family member he has left. It was Shiro who made sure the café wasn't taken down during the time Keith went missing, he also helped Keith reopen the café. And for that, he is really grateful for Shiro.

"How are Hunk and Pidge doing?" Shiro asks.

"They are doing grea--"

"Oh, hi guys." Lance is interrupted by a tanned man wearing glasses who just came out from the kitchen.

"Hey, Adam," Lance says. "Didn't know you were here."

"I am always here, Lance. This is my bar too. He just seems like the owner because he stands out here and greets everyone while I work in the kitchen." Adam states pointing at his fiancé.

"Okay, okay we get it," Shiro says laughing. "You are the boss."

"Of course, I am. I do everything around here," he complains. "You just sit around all day smiling at people."

"Hey, I do more than that!" Shiro replies.

"Oh really? Like what?"

"Customer service is not an easy job! Especially, when I am dealing with drunk people most of the time."

The couple's quarrelling was so light-hearted that Keith and Lance couldn't help but look at each other and chuckle at their childish exchange.

After having small talks with Lance and Keith, Adam goes back to the kitchen. Lance finishes his drink and gets up.

"Where are you going?" Keith asks.

"Nature's call," Lance replies and leaves for the washroom.

Keith turns back to face Shiro who was staring at him. "What is it?"

"That's a nice rose," Shiro smirks, pointing to the rose which Keith had placed on the counter.

"Who gave it to you?"

"... Lance..." Keith answers reluctantly as a slight blush creeps up on his pale face. "And no. It is not like that."

"I didn't say anything," Shiro comments chuckling.

"You were thinking about it," Keith snaps back. "The rose doesn't mean anything. He just gave it to me because he didn't bring in any flower to the café this morning."

"Oh yeah, I am totally sure that's all there is to it," Shiro says sarcastically totally unconvinced by Keith's explanation. Not that Keith believes it any more than Shiro does.

Keith sighs. "It's complicated, Shiro. And I have no idea what to do." He puts his folded hands on his temple and looks down. "I mean one minute I hate him and the next minute..."

"... You like him?"

"Yeah..." Keith whispers this so quietly that Shiro doesn't even hear him say it.

"Don't worry, Keith. You will figure it out." Shiro smiles at the raven-haired boy, and he smiles back.

"Thank you, Shiro."

"No problem, Kid."

A few minutes later, Lance appears behind Keith. "Ready to leave?"

"Yeah," Keith replies. "Bye Shiro"

"Goodnight guys."

The two boys walk out of the bar and into the chilly night. They were feeling tired and were glad that their apartment was only a few minutes walk from the bar. "It's kinda cold, huh?"

"Yeah..." Keith replies slowly. "Lance, tomorrow are you going..."

"Yes?'

"Um... never mind," Keith responds. "I am really tired. I just want to get home quickly."

Lance raises an eyebrow but doesn't push the matter. "Yeah, me too."

Chapter Text

The strong smell of coffee wakes Lance up from his sleep, he sits on his bed for a few minutes before going to the bathroom. He quickly finishes up his morning routines and walks into the kitchen, his stomach grumbles when he smells breakfast.

"Good morning." Lances say.

Keith was going around watering the different types of plants and flowers they were growing. Lance knows that their apartment has an excessive amount of plants and flowers, many people who have visited their apartment before noted this including, Pidge, Hunk, Shiro and Adam. But both Lance and Keith loves it, especially flowers. And collecting different types of plants and flowers has kind of become their hobby now.

"Morning. Breakfast is on the table."

"Thanks." Lance was already pouring maple syrup on his pancakes. The taste of pancake fills Lance's mouth, and he feels like he is in heaven. "Keith, you make the best pancake ever!"

"Hunk makes it better." Keith walks over to sit on the opposite side of the table.

"Okay, you make the second best though." Keith softly smiles as Lance gobbles down his breakfast. Keith has always loved cooking, when they were kids Lance used to be his experimental guinea pig. Actually, he still is Keith's guinea pig, he still makes Lance taste his new recipes before cooking it for anyone else. Keith always loved the way Lance happily ate the food he prepared. When Lance first mentioned just how much he loved Hunk's cooking, Keith had felt a pang of jealousy, but that quickly disappeared when he tasted Hunk's food, the man is a genius cook.

Keith watches Lance for a few more minutes before saying, "Are you going to stay over at your family home this weekend?"

"Yeah, it's the long weekend. Why?"

"Um, c-can I come with you?" Lance looks up at Keith and furrows his eyebrows. "It's just that I haven't seen our hometown in a while and I haven't seen your family since I--"

"Since, you ditched us all?" There was more venom in his voice than he had intended. Keith cringes a little.

"Sorry, Keith. I just..." Lance closes his eyes and sighs heavily. He slowly opens them and softly looks into Keith's violet ones, then smiles. "Of course, you can come with me, Keith. They have been asking me to bring you along for a while now. They will be thrilled to see you again."

Keith is quiet for a few minutes. "Really? They ask about me?"

"Of course, they do Keith," Lance says and then smirks. "Especially Rachel. She really misses your pretty face. After all, you were her favourite dress-up doll." Keith rolls his eyes at the memory and Lance starts laughing.

"When are you leaving?"

"In about half an hour or so," Lance tells him.

One hour later, they were walking to Lance's car parked outside their apartment. Lance unlocks the black Honda Accord, but before getting into the driver's seat, he turns to look at Keith. "Hey Keith, do you wanna drive?"

"Yeah sure," Keith takes the keys from Lance and gets into the driver's seat while Lance rides shotgun. Their hometown was way out in the countryside, it takes them about half an hour to get there from their apartment in the city. Even though Keith hasn't been there for a while, he still has no problem navigating his way there.

The one-hour car ride is in no way quiet. Lance was blasting off to music, singing along loudly much to Keith's displeasure. Keith was starting to believe the reason Lance had let Keith drive was because he wanted to annoy Keith with his singing. But to say he didn’t find Lance's singing amusing would be a lie.

In all honesty, Lance is a good singer but his choice in music, on the other hand, is not so great. Currently, he was singing Party In The U.S.A. at the top of his lungs with windows rolled down. I am so glad we are out of the city. Keith thought to himself. Keith didn't think he could handle the humiliation if someone saw them.

Soon they reach their hometown which is a small community with closely knitted neighbours. Keith slowly drives through the town, looking at all the nostalgic places he sees around, like the playground, their old high school etc. All of Keith's memories were still fresh in his mind, a sense of sadness and happiness fills him at the same time.

"You okay?" Lance asks, turning down the music. Lance looks at him with concern in his blue eyes.

"Yeah." Keith takes in a very deep breath and lets it out. "It's just that, I thought seeing this place again would be painful, that's why I never came back here, but surprisingly it's not. Now that I am here, I realize that all of my best memories took place here and I kinda regret not coming back here sooner."

"You're here now." Lance slowly smirks. "And your little trip through memory lane has only just started."

Keith laughs lightly. "I don't doubt it."

Keith pulls the car into the McClains’ driveway and parks into the only available spot. Much to Keith's despair, there were already three cars parked in the driveway which means two others were parked inside the garage. This meant that all the McClains were home and Keith wasn't ready for that. I didn't think this through properly. What am I gonna say to them? Keith is definitely starting to have second thoughts.

"Are you just gonna sit there and stare at the steering wheel or are you coming inside?" Lance was already standing outside the car.

"Is it really okay if I come inside?" Lance looks at Keith like he just asked the dumbest question in the whole world. Keith sighs heavily and gets out of the car. "Alright, let's do this."

"Keith, we are not going to war." Keith ignores him and starts walking towards the house but stops and waits for Lance before climbing the stairs to the front door. Lance was about to ring the bell when Keith stops him. "What?!"

"Lance, I am really nervous," Keith admits.

"Dude, what the hell? It's just my family, and you already know them."

"That's the problem! As you said, I... I ditched them, Lance. You guys are like family to me. Your parents are my second parents, and your siblings are like the siblings I never had." The present tense he was using didn't go unnoticed by Lance, and he smiles on the inside. "And I left without even saying a single word to any of you."

"Relax, we McClains don't hold grudges." At this Keith raises one of his eyebrows. "Okay, everyone except me. You will be fine. As I said before, they are all dying to see you. So, calm down."

Keith takes a deep breath and doesn't say anything. He just stares at the front door and mentally prepares his mind for whatever is to come. When Lance sees that Keith has somewhat prepared himself, he reaches out and rings the doorbell.

Chapter Text

A short, round woman with curly brown hair opens the door and gasps when she sees the raven-haired boy who stood there nervously. Without hesitation, she wraps her arms around the young man who is surprised by her action but happily returns the hug.

"Mama, I am here too, you know," Lance says slightly jealous of Keith at the moment. Lance was the youngest of the five McClain siblings and received the most attention growing up, and as a result, he is the most spoiled.

"Oh my god, Keith. How have you been? You have grown so much since the last time I saw you." Pauline says totally ignoring Lance. She looks at Keith, a few tears start to show up in her eyes. From the corner of his eyes, Keith sees Lance pout, and he fights the urge to chuckle.

"I have been doing fine. I have missed you all so much."

"Oh Keith, we missed you too." She pulls him into a hug again, and he smiles to himself. I really did miss this place.

Pauline happily pulls Keith into the house not daring to let go of his hand even for a second. Once again, she totally ignores Lance and Keith turns back to look at him who was gaping at his mother like he just got slapped on his face and again Keith has to fight the urge to chuckle. Keith was starting to wonder that Pauline was doing this on purpose just to tease her son. That or, she was really excited to see Keith, and he secretly hoped that it was the latter.

"Everyone, Keith is here," Pauline calls out happily, soon the house is filled with excited voices, and Keith becomes the center of attention.

"Keith?! Keith!" Rachel, Lance's second oldest sister, comes running down the stairs.

"Dude, how have you been?" Marco, the third oldest sibling, comes out from the kitchen.

"Oh Keith, how we have missed you." Tears run down Veronica's face as she hugs him.

"About time you showed up." Luis, the oldest sibling, smirks from behind Veronica.

"Glad to see you again, Keith" Lance's father was grinning at Keith.

Lance stood in the corner of the room with folded arms, and despite his slight jealousy he couldn't help but smile as he watched everyone cheerfully greet and hug Keith. He looks at Keith whose lips were pulled into a beautiful smile which brightened up his whole face. Lance would give anything to see that smile on Keith every day.

After hugging Lance's grandfather and grandmother Keith notices two little kids standing behind Luis' wife, Lisa. "Is that Mateo and Nadia?" he walks over to the boy and girl and kneels in front of them. "They have grown so much. How old are they now? Are they like ten and six or am I wrong?"

Lisa looks at Keith surprised and then smiles. "No, you are right. Guess, your memory is as good as ever."

Keith smiles at the two kids. "Do you guys remember me?"

"Yeah." The youngest sibling says. "But you left."

Keith smiles sadly, suddenly hating his old self for abandoning this family. "I am so sorry, Nadia."

"It's fine. We will forgive you since you came back." Her brother tells. "Just don't leave us again."

"I promise I will never leave again." Keith opens his arms wide. "Come here." The two kids rush in, and he hugs them tightly. It was his way of telling them how sorry he was for leaving them.

Keith stands and turns around to face the huge family who had warmly welcomed him back. Suddenly, he becomes conscious of Lance standing in a corner warmly looking at Keith with a soft smile attached to his face. Something flutters in Keith’s stomach because of the way Lance was looking at him, but he ignores it and looks at Pauline who steps forward and takes his hands in hers. "Welcome back Keith."

"Thank you." He feels that a huge part that was missing from his heart has been put back together.

"Alrighty, now that everyone has said their hellos to pretty boy over here. Can I get something to eat? I am starving." Lance walks over to the group from the corner he was standing.

"Lunch is not ready yet." Pauline looks at her youngest son. "It will take a few more hours."

"Lance, you just ate breakfast like two hours ago," Keith adds in. "You can't possibly be hungry."

"Why don't you guys get your stuff upstairs and settle in. You are staying over the weekend, right?" Veronica turns to look at Keith expectedly.

"Yeah, I am staying," Keith assures her with a smile.

"Fine, I will eat later." Lance starts walking towards the stairs and then turns to look at Keith. "Are you coming?" Keith quickly grabs his stuff and follows Lance up the stairs.

They walk into the room at the very end of the hallway. "Home sweet home, I guess." Lance holds the door to his room open for Keith to enter. Keith looks around the room, and it is exactly as how he remembers, it was the room of fanboy teenager Lance. There was a bed at one corner of the room and a desk on the opposite corner. On the walls, there were posters of his favourite anime and music bands.

"Really Lance?" Keith looks at the posters, raising an eyebrow at Lance.

"I know, I know. Trust me, even I think they are lame now." Lance admits. "I wanted to take them down, but I was just too lazy."

Keith walks over to the poster and immediately starts tearing them down one by one. He turns to look at Lance and sees a frown on his face. "What? I thought you said you wanted to take them down."

"Yeah but..." Lance sighs. "No, it's fine. You can take them all down."

"There. All done," Keith says after taking down the last poster.

Lance looks at his bedroom wall which is now fully bare thanks to Keith. "I am gonna miss that," Lance says softly.

"Lance, they are just posters."

"You know it wasn't just laziness that stopped me from taking them down." Keith looks at Lance questioningly. "Some of those posters were gifts from you. It's some of the few things you left behind for me. I always felt like if I threw them away, it would be the same as giving up on you. When you left, I started to fear that eventually, I will forget about you, but I didn't want that. These posters reminded me of you and of the time we spend together in this room."

Lance’s words had taken Keith by surprise and he didn't know what to say. So, he just stood there looking at Lance, feeling slightly guilty and embarrassed for some reason.

"D-do you want me to put them back together?" He finally blurts out.

Lance suddenly goes into a fit of laughter at Keith's cute and flustered expression. "No, it's fine Keith. That was just my childish way of thinking back then. Plus, you are here now. So, it doesn't matter anymore."

"Oh okay," Keith replies still recovering from his flustered state.

After arranging and putting his belongings in the right place, Keith walks over to the window. He looks out and sees a slightly smaller house next door. He knew that no one lived there anymore. The house next door had an overall gloomy feeling to it despite the beautiful flowers that were growing in front of the house.

Lance comes and stands next to Keith. "My mom makes sure to water the flowers regularly since your mom loved it so much. I guess it's my mom's way of honouring her friend."

"I should go and see how the house is holding up."

"You can't go inside though. We don't have the key."

"I have the key. Shiro gave it to me."

"Of course, he did," Lance says with a matter of fact tone. "You want to go now?"

"No!" Keith basically shouts. "I mean, I don't think I am ready yet. I just need to mentally prepare myself."

"Yeah, it's fine. We will go whenever your ready, Keith." Lance walks over to his bed and sits down. "So, Mr. Popular what do you wanna do in the meantime?"

"Aww, is the baby of the house jealous of me?" Keith teases him. Lance just glares at him in reply, and Keith finally lets out the laughter he was holding in for a while now.

Chapter Text

Lance and Keith decide to watch a movie to kill time. Now, the two boys were sitting in the basement arguing about what movie to watch. Lance was randomly going through Netflix’s selection of movies, and Keith was trying to take the remote control away from his long arms.

“Let’s just watch Infinity War,” Lance says.

“No.”

“Why? You love this movie.”

“Lance, we already watched this movie like a hundred times. I am not planning on watching it anytime soon.”

“So, you do plan on watching it again. Let’s do that now.”

Keith sighs and gives up trying to take the remote away from Lance. “Can we please just watch another movie?”

Lance thinks for a second. “Okay fine. Then let’s watch a horror movie.”

“Hell no!”

“Oh, come on, Keith. It will be fun.” He clicks on the horror icon. “Plus, you are too old to still be scared of watching horror movies.”

“I am not scared!” Keith snaps.

“Then you should have no problem watching this,” Lance smirks knowing all too well just how scared Keith is, but he also knows that Keith’s pride is too high for him to admit that he is scared. This was one of Keith’s few weaknesses, he can’t handle horror stuff very well. He even hates Halloween and Lance still cannot comprehend how it is even possible for a person to hate Halloween.

Keith turns to look at the screen, Lance silently chuckles at Keith’s horrified expression as he sees the movie Lance had picked.

“The Conjuring?! Isn’t this the one with the scary nun.”

“Nope, that’s The Conjuring 2. This is the first part. So, no scary nun.” Lance pauses for a second. “At least I don’t think there is. I haven’t watched it yet.”

“Isn’t the first part of every horror movie supposed to be the best.” Keith was really regretting not taking up the offer to watch Infinity War. “Doesn’t that mean this one is scarier than the sequel?

“So, what? The scarier the movie is the more fun it is.”

“Yeah, fun.” Keith scoffs sarcastically. Lance suddenly remembers the time when he had watched ‘Lights Out” trailer with him, Keith was barely able to sit through the trailer. Oh, I am so gonna enjoy this. Lance thinks to himself as he looks at an edgy Keith.

The two boys huddle together on the couch with a bowl full of popcorn. Keith was still debating in his head whether he should watch this movie and Lance was looking forward to teasing Keith after his reactions to the movie.

Unfortunately for Lance, he was the type of person who gets absorbed into the movie once it starts. So, as soon as the movie begins, Lance forgets all about teasing Keith and both his body and mind focus on the movie. Keith is almost just as focussed on the movie as Lance. And as the movie progresses into the scarier scenes, Keith unconsciously finds comfort by wrapping both his arms around Lance’s left arm, neither boys realize as they lean in towards each other.

The movie was at the part where the mother gets stuck in the basement, she lights the lighter and a few seconds go by, Keith tightens his grip around Lance’s arms. Then suddenly two hands clap next to the mother’s head in the movie, Keith screeches loudly next to Lance. Lance screams startled by Keith’s sudden outburst.

“Holy shit, Keith!” Lance tries to calm down his heart that was beating at a rapid rate. “Don’t do that! You scared the crap outta me.”

“My bad. That was kinda scary.”

The adrenaline from the jump scare they just received was so high that neither of them argues or tease each other about being scared. So, they continue watching the rest of the movie in silence. Occasionally, they would shriek at some jump scare, but they were able to watch the whole movie without any interruptions.

“That was actually a pretty good movie,” Lance says.

“I guess.” Lance turns to look at Keith who was still looking at the screen. Keith still had his arms wrapped around Lance’s, his face was just a few inches away from Lance. Lance takes the opportunity and finds himself studying Keith’s features. His violet eyes that seem to hold the entire world in it and his beautiful pale skin with his silky black hair to compliment it.

“Lance, what are you doing?” Keith was staring at him, and Lance realizes that he was unconsciously stroking Keith’s hair. With a serious face Lance turns his azure eyes and stares straight into Keith’s violet ones, their faces only inches apart. Keith’s face gradually turns red as Lance’s eyes slowly scan his face.

“Keith, there is something I want to tell you…” Lance whispers and Keith barely hears what he says. Both boys knew where this was headed, and both were scared. Lance’s heart was beating at a rate he thought was impossible, his brain had stopped working. Maybe it was the adrenaline from watching the movie, perhaps it was their close proximity or perhaps it was because of just how much Keith’s flowery scent was overwhelming Lance. But whatever it was, every cell in Lance’s body wanted to tell Keith just how much he loves him and just hold him and never let go but he couldn’t. Not yet.

“What is it?” Keith tightens his grip on Lance’s arm. Part of him didn’t want to know the answer because he wasn’t ready, but another part of him just wanted it more than anything

Lance just looks at Keith and shakes his head and then smirks.

“Uh, nothing,” Lance says and decides to lighten the mood. “Why do you insist on keeping a mullet?”

“Oh god, not this again.” Keith groans and shoves Lance, moving away from him. Then he sighs heavily. “Can we just go eat something? I am hungry.” Guess, he isn’t ready either. Keith thinks to himself, and a small part of him was relieved.

“You just ate a bowl of popcorn. How could you possibly be hungry?” Lance says half being reasonable and half mimicking Keith from before.

“First of all, popcorn is a snack, I want real food. Second of all, don’t they say watching horror movies burn more calories.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Let’s just go upstairs. I want to spend more time with your family.” Keith says. “Now that I think about it, why the hell did I watch a horror movie with you?! I came here to spend time with your family. Not you!”

“First, you are rude as hell. Second, it was your idea to watch a movie.”

“Well yeah, but… Okay, that was my bad.” Keith admits. “Lance, I want us, I mean both of us to be with your family. Just like when we were kids.”

“Your wish is my command, my Lord.” Lance brings his right hand to his chest and dramatically bows down towards Keith.

“Don’t do that.”

Chapter Text

After having lunch with the McClain family, Keith decides to take Mateo and Nadia to the park, the two kids were thrilled by the idea. Lance and Rachel tag along, mostly because they wanted to avoid doing the household chores. Lance drives them to the park and yet again Keith finds himself looking out the window, retrieving the memories from the past.

They arrive at the park and Keith spends about an hour playing with Mateo and Nadia. He finds himself enjoying playing on the slides and swings along with the two kids. Keith knew that the idea of a twenty-two-year-old boy playing in a park meant for elementary kids was silly, but he didn’t care, it has been a while since he had been able to enjoy himself. In fact, he actually appreciated the silly situation he was in and the stupid things he did with Mateo and Nadia. Looking at the two kids who were genuinely enjoying Keith’s company made him happy, he felt like nothing else really mattered. He was having fun, and they were having fun.

Rachel who just sat back and watched them play couldn’t hold back anymore and decided to join them. Keith and Rachel talked and caught up on everything that had happened in their life so far while they helped Mateo and Nadia ride the swings. Being closer to their age, Keith had always been closer to Rachel than Lance’s other siblings. Rachel came second to Lance when it came to teasing and making fun of Keith, she took no time in bringing up Keith’s embarrassing moments from their childhood and telling it to the two kids on the swings. But Keith also had his share of embarrassing moments of Rachel to share with the kids. They laughed and poked fun at each other and all the while Keith was fully aware of Lance watching them from far. Keith could practically feel Lance’s gaze on him. Keith turned and looked back Lance, he smiled and waved back at Keith.

“Rachel, can you look after the kids for a while?”

Rachel smiled looking at him, then at Lance. “Sure. Go take a walk with him, you guys need it.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You know…” She looks at Keith for a while and sighs heavily. “Keith, when you left, it really took a toll on Lance. It was like his whole world had come crumbling down. What was more painful than you leaving us was watching a broken Lance.”

“I am sorry.”

“Keith, we all understand why you left. You were just as broken after your parents’ death.” She continues. “But Lance probably thinks the reason you left was that he wasn’t good enough to comfort and support you when you needed him the most.”

“That is not true at all!” Keith was shocked by Rachel’s words.

“Yeah, I know.” Rachel sighs slightly. “Keith, I know you came here to apologize to us, but the one you need to apologize to is not us. It’s him” She points her head towards Lance who was looking at his phone.

“I did apologize. More times than I can count.” Keith whisper mostly to himself. Keith always felt a pang in his chest whenever he realized that Lance has yet to forgive him for leaving. “I have been trying to close this distance between us ever since I came back, but I don’t think I can anymore. He will never forgive me.”

“Are you an idiot?” Keith looks up a little surprised by her question. “Of course, he is going to forgive you. Keith, let me tell you a little secret I uncovered of my little brother. Lance McClain is incapable of living without you. I mean I saw it firsthand when you left so, I am not joking when I say this.” Keith feels his face slightly heat up as Rachel’s words slowly sink into his mind.

“Okay, thanks for the exaggeration.” Keith slightly smiles and then smirks looking at Rachel. “When did you get so good at cheering people up?”

Rachel dramatically gasps, pretending to look hurt and surprised. “I have always been a ball of sunshine, Kogane.”

“Yeah sure. Whatever helps you sleep at night.” Rachel pouts slightly, Keith laughs at her silly expression.

“Okay, whatever.” She looks behind him to Lance. “Just go to your boyfriend already.”

“Lance is not my boyfriend.”

“You sure? Because right now he is glaring at me.” She smirks, Keith did not need to turn around to know that she was telling the truth. “Kind of reminds me of the time when I took away his favourite toy and hid it.”

Keith shakes his head and sighs. “Well, maybe he’s just…”

“Don’t bother coming up with an excuse. Anyone, who spends two seconds with you guys can see how you feel about each other.” She then looks at Keith trying to read Keith’s face. “The question is, why aren’t you guys dating already? You know he likes you, he knows you like him. So, what is the problem?”

Keith had lost count of how many times he had asked the same question to himself. There were many times where he was so close to confessing his love to Lance and vice versa, but both are afraid of something. Keith is scared that Lance will never trust him again because he left him once and maybe Lance thinks he will do it again. Keith doesn’t think he is worthy of Lance’s love after the crap he put him through. Keith knows that Lance loves him, but even if he confessed to Lance there is still the chance he might be rejected by him. Because there is a reason why Lance is reluctant to confess to Keith and as long as that reason exists Keith will be rejected. So, somewhere along the lines, Keith had decided that he will wait for Lance to confess no matter how long it takes.

“I guess, we are still figuring things out.” Keith sighs heavily and shakes his head. He looks up to smile at Rachel. “I will be back in a few, alright?”

“Oh, don’t worry take your sweet time,” Rachel calls out as Keith walks towards a slightly upset looking Lance, jealousy was clear on his face. Keith couldn’t help but be happy at the sight before him, he couldn’t stop the smile that slowly spread across his face.

Chapter Text

“You guys seem to be enjoying yourselves,” Lance says as soon as Keith was at a hearing distance, Keith snickers at how jealous he sounded. “What?”

“You know you're jealous of your own sister, right?”

“Wha-?! I am not jealous!”

“Yeah sure,” Keith says nonchalantly looking down the road. “Wanna take a walk with me?”

 Lance stares at Keith for a while before shaking his head and sighing heavily. “Yeah, let’s take a walk.”

Lance walks beside Keith in peaceful and complete silence. Keith was leading, but Lance somewhat knew where they were headed. He remembers walking down the same road with Keith when they were younger. He remembers them arguing about silly things, teasing and making fun of each other. As all the memories came rushing in a small smile plays across Lance’s lips. Back then everything between him and Keith was so simple, they were best friends, and they were able to tell each other anything without holding back. What happened to us? What has changed?  Lance thinks to himself.

The two boys stop walking, Lance looks up to see that they were in front of their old high school. Even though he has passed through here many times after he graduated, there was something about being here today with Keith beside him that made him feel like he hasn’t been here for years. There was this strong nostalgic feeling in his gut, it felt like he was seeing the school for the first time in years and in a way he was. For the first time, he notices the slight changes they made to the school since he graduated which he had failed to notice before. To be honest, after Keith’s disappearance Lance tried to avoid places that reminded him of Keith. Seems kind of stupid now though.

“This place hasn’t changed much.” Keith snaps Lance out of his thoughts.

“Uh, yeah.” Lance looks at Keith to see him staring at the school as if he is seeing it for the first time. “So, why did you want to come here?”

“No reason.” Keith shrugs. “Actually, I wanna go somewhere.” He grabs onto Lance’s hands pulling him towards the open field behind the school. He starts running across the field pulling Lance with him. The two boys mindless ran across the field enjoying the cool breeze that blew on their faces and the adrenaline that was rushing to their heads. Somehow, they had managed to go back to their old days, they were happily enjoying each other’s company while doing stupid things. They ran while laughing at their own childishness.

Finally, the two of them come to a stop under an oak tree that stood the very end of the field, it was pretty far away from the school. They were panting really hard after all the running they had done, without saying a word they sit down resting their backs on the oak tree. They sit in silence while they try to catch their breath.

“You don’t happen to have water with you, do you?” Keith asks, his breath was still uneven.

“Nope.” Lance gasps out. “Next time tell me when you decide to take me on a running spree, so I can be more prepared.”

“Yeah.” Keith’s breathing was back to normal. “Hey, do you remember this tree?” Keith asks patting the tree behind him.

Lance groans. “Please don’t bring up my dark pasts.”

Keith snickers. “Exactly how many girls dumped you here?” Lance just glared at him, Keith burst out laughing. “I always wondered why they all chose the same place to dump you.” Keith looked at Lance expecting an answer.

“I am as clueless as you,” Lance mutters. “I guess it just became the “Dumping Lance McClain Tree.” I hate this tree, it only holds bad memories for me.”

“You had your first kiss here. That’s a good memory, right?” Keith says trying to cheer Lance up.

“Oh god, that is one of the worst ones. I still can’t believe I had my first kiss with that bitch.”

“What, Nora?! Of all your girlfriends she was the only one I thought was actually kinda nice. I always wondered why you broke up with her?” Keith says, shocked to hear Lance’s words.

Lance scoffs. “Yeah, she was all goody two shoes on the outside, but she is the most manipulative person I have met in my entire life.” Keith furrows his eyebrows questioningly. Lance sighs heavily before saying, “Remember when the whole school found out you were gay?”

“Oh, you mean when I was bullied, and everyone was always staring at me as if I was a piece of trash? Yeah, I vaguely remember that.” Keith answers sarcastically.

“How do you think they found out?”

“You are saying Nora did that? Why the hell would she do that?” Keith thinks for a second. “Wait, was that because I rejected her? How did she even know I was gay?”

Lance looks down at his hands and sighs. “Keith, she didn’t go out with me because she liked me. She went out with me because she wanted to get closer to you. She liked you, and I was upset when she told me that. So, I told her you were gay.” Lance looked at Keith apologetically. “When she found that out she was so pissed but more than that she was disgusted, and she was acting like a whole different person. That’s when I realized she was being fake the whole time she was with me. And the next day rumours were flying about you. I knew it was her and I was so pissed that I broke up with her.” Lance purposely left out a few details. Honestly, the reason he broke up with her was not that she started the rumour but because of how she had bad-mouthed Keith. Lance couldn’t even stand to look at her after everything she said about Keith.

“Why didn’t you tell me that she was the one who did it?” Keith asks mostly just to keep the conversation going, he couldn’t care less about what happened years ago.

“I thought you would hate me.” Lance pauses for a second. “It wasn’t my secret to tell.”

“Damn right, it wasn’t!” Keith stares into Lance’s blue eyes, and Lance returns the stare. A few moments later both boys’ face breaks into a small smile before they burst out laughing.

“Dude, your choices in girls really do suck,” Keith says after having calmed down. “That’s why your relationships never lasted long.”

“I don’t want to hear that from a guy who has not dated anyone for more than a week.”

“Fair enough,” Keith admits. “Hey, can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Why did your previous girlfriends break up with you? Whenever I asked you used to give me vague answers.” Lance looks at Keith for a while before resting his head on the tree and closing his eyes.

“You.”

“Huh?”

“Sometimes you were the reason. Because I spend more time with you than them. Once I said I enjoyed and had more fun spending time with you than her. That was I bad idea, she hit my face.” Lance laughs at his own stupidity as Keith’s face slowly turned red. “But other times they said the cliché line, ‘you don’t really like me, do you? You already love someone else.’ Guess they noticed, though I didn’t have a clue what they were talking about back then. It’s scary how quick girls are able to notice these kinds of things.”

“You are an idiot,” Keith says, turning his face away from Lance.

Lance opens his eyes to look at Keith’s bowed head. “I just said my whole love life has been destroyed by you, and you call me an idiot?”

“That’s why you are an idiot,” Keith mutters. “I am not worth it.”

“I think it was worth it.” Lance puts his right hand on Keith’s cheeks and makes him look at Lance’s face. “Actually, I take that back. It was definitely worth it. I will do it all again even if it is just to see the face you are making right now.” And Lance meant every single word he said because he has not seen anything cuter than the Keith that was sitting in front of him.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Keith mumbles looking down again.

Lance chuckles and slowly stands up. “We should head back. Rachel and the kids are probably waiting for us.” He holds out his hand and helps Keith back onto his feet.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

Chapter Text

Time flew by quickly for the two boys, it was already dark outside when Keith, Lance, Rachel and the kids made it back to the house. The rest of the day was spent with most of the family members gathered in the living room, Keith once again being the center of attention. Pauline was in the kitchen preparing dinner with the help of her husband. Apparently, she let her children ‘off the hook’ just for the day because she wanted them to spend some time with Keith. Despite the huge couch in the living room, everyone decided to sit on the floor leaning on one thing or another. Keith was leaning on the couch with Rachel and Veronica on his two side, he felt threatened in his current position because he knew those two were definitely up to something. Lance sat right across the room from Keith, he had both Mateo and Nadia on his lap.

“So, Keith…” Veronica starts to say slowly. “How’s your life with Lance?”

Lance’s head snaps up to look towards Keith’s direction.

“Wha- What do you mean?” Keith stammers out nervously. Oh, so this is what they were up to? Keith thinks to himself.

“What do you mean ‘what’?” Rachel says innocently. “You guys live together, don’t you?”

“Right.” Keith sighs internally. “That’s what you meant.”

“What else could I mean?” Rachel once again feigns innocence.

Keith takes a deep breath. “Yes, Rachel, Lance and I live together. And its great living with him…” He thought for a second “… sometimes.”

“Hey.” Lance protests from across the room. “I am an awesome person to be around.”

“Oh, is Lance giving you trouble?” Luis asks from beside Lance.

“Yeah, sometimes.”

“When have I ever given you trouble?” Lance asks.

“Well, for starters I have to wake you up every morning.”

“You wake him up?” Keith turns around to see Veronica smirking. “Well, aren’t you a good boyfriend.”

“I am not his boyfriend,” Keith murmurs without even putting any energy into.

“Wakes him up, makes sure he eats properly and etc., etc.… Yeah, you are not his boyfriend more like his wife,” Rachel say, this earns a burst of laughter from both Luis and Marco while both Lance and Keith become a blushing mess.

“Stop it guys.” Lance says “You two have always been like that. Why do you guys like to bully Keith so much?”

“Correction. This time we are bullying you AND Keith.” Rachel says shamelessly.

“And as to why we do this,” Veronica replies. “Look at his face. He is so damn cute when he is embarrassed. Like seriously, how can we NOT bully him?”

Keith was looking at Lance only because he did not know where else to look and Lance had to admit that he looked pretty damn cute with his flushed face, but he was not willing to admit that to his sisters.

“Okay, come on now, guys,” Marco says standing up. “Keith just came back home. We don’t want to scare him away. Plus, I think dinner’s ready.”

As if on cue, Pauline calls out from the kitchen, “Dinner’s ready.” The whole family including Keith gathers around the table and enjoys a wonderful dinner. Everything about being there brought such happy memories to Keith and he never wanted it to end.

After dinner, everyone hanged around the living room for a few more hours before leaving for their own rooms to sleep. Both Lance and Keith left to go to Lance’s room where they quickly got ready for a good night's rest. They had known each other for far too long to know that fighting about who sleeps on the floor and who takes the bed would take forever. So, in a silent agreement, they both climbed onto Lance’s bed and made themselves comfortable. They laid down with their backs against each other.

“Keith, are you sleepy?”

“Yes.”

“Are you going to sleep?”

“Yes.”

There was a few moments of silence before Keith asks. “You are not sleepy?”

“No, I am sleepy but…”

“But you can’t sleep.”

“Yeah.”

“You want to hug something while you sleep?”

“Yeah.”

“What are you five?” Keith thinks for a few minutes and then sighs heavily. “Fine, just don’t squeeze me to death.”

As soon as those words were out of Keith’s mouth, Lance positions one of his hand under Keith’s head, he wraps the other hand around his waist. He tightly squeezes Keith towards him, nuzzling his nose into Keith’s hair and sighing contentedly.

“Thank you, Keith.”

Keith chuckles at Lance’s neediness. What’s up with this huge needy brat? Kind of reminds me of an attention deprived dog. Keith thinks to himself.

“Don’t laugh at me,” Lance mumbles into Keith’s hair.

“I am not laughing at you.”

“You are. I know you are.” Keith could basically see Lance pouting from his voice. Keith turns around to face Lance, throwing his hands over Lance’s stomach returning the embrace.

“You are so cute, Lance,” Keith says to a very sleepy Lance.

“I don’t want to hear that from the guy whose face looked like a tomato a few hours ago.” Lance didn’t put any energy into his words, so Keith didn’t feel like arguing back and something told Keith that he was already half asleep.

Keith plants a small kiss on Lance’s forehead. “Goodnight sleepyhead.”

“’Night,” Lance mumble back.

With that Lance fell into a deep slumber and Keith slowly fell asleep watching a sleeping Lance. The two boys peacefully slept in the comfort of each other’s arms until the next morning.

Chapter Text

As usual, Keith wakes up before Lance, but he was too warm and comfortable in Lance’s bed to get up and get ready for the day. So, he just lay there studying the other boy’s lean face which was as beautiful as ever, his tanned skin was smooth and shiny as usual. Unfortunately, Keith was denied the pleasure of looking at his favourite feature: Lance’s blue eyes. How can someone who looks so peaceful when he is asleep be so annoying when he is awake? Keith thinks to himself. Knowing that he must eventually get out of bed, he quietly leaves his comfortable position on the bed, entering the bathroom to get ready for the day. After finishing his daily routine, he decides to wake Lance up.

“Hey, wake up!” Keith says, trying to shake Lance awake.

“Give me five more minutes.” Lance mumbles. He turns around and tries to go back to sleep.

“No! Wake up, it’s already 7:30.” Keith pulls the blanket away from Lance. “You have slept long enough.”

“Noooooo. My blankie!” Lance whines and tries to get his blanket.

“Just get up and get ready.”

“You are so mean.” Lance sits up, pouting.

“There’s no point in trying to act cute,” Keith says firmly. “There is no way I am giving this back to you.”

Lance stares at Keith for a while before giving up. “Fine!” The brunette slowly gets out of bed. He grabs some clothes from his closet and slowly walks to the bathroom.

Keith was getting dressed for the day and was about put on a T-shirt on when Lance awkwardly comes out of the bathroom.

“Keith, a little help please.”

As soon as Keith sees Lance, he goes into a fit of laughter. Lance stands at the entrance of the bathroom with both his hands raised above his head and T- shirt stuck halfway around his head. It was one of his old T- shirt that clearly does not fit him anymore.

“Stop laughing.” Lance's voice was muffled by the T-shirt’s hem.

“Sorry, it’s just too damn funny,” Keith says trying to calm his laughter.

“It’s not funny. I am in a real-life crisis here.” Lance says. “Help me get out of this!”

“How the hell did you even get it on?” Keith quickly takes out his phone and takes a pic of Lance’s miserable state.

“Don’t ask. Just get me out of this!” Lance says trying to squiggle his way out of the T-shirt.

“Okay, okay. Calm down. I will help.”

Keith pulls at the hem of the T-shirt which was already over Lance’s head, and Lance pulls in the opposite. After some pulling back and forth, they finally get him out of the shirt.

“Thank god, it was you,” Lance says mostly to himself.

“Huh?”

“No, its just that if it were one of my siblings, they would have definitely taken a pic and turned it into a blackmailing material, especially Rachel and Veronica.” Lance lets out a relieved sigh.

“Oh? How bold of you to assume I didn’t take a picture.” Keith says smirking and showing off his phone to Lance.

Fear quickly trickles it into Lance’s mind, he immediately reaches out for Keith’s phone, but he easily dodges his way out of Lance’s reach.

“Keith, give me the phone,” Lance says trying to sound calm.

“No way in hell.”

Lance quickly moves forward and takes hold of Keith’s hand, but while Keith tries to move out of the way, he loses his balance and falls on the bed pulling Lance down with him. Lance takes advantage of Keith’s slip up and grabs the phone from his hands and quickly enters Keith’s password and deletes the picture from his phone.

Lance was still in the process of rejoicing his success to notice the situation he was in. Finally, he looks at Keith who had become a blushing mess under Lance, his face starts to heat up as reality slowly hits him. On the other hand, Keith had immediately realized what had happened but was too mesmerized by an exciting Lance to move. There it is… Keith thinks to himself as he stares deeply into Lance’s ocean blue eyes. His hands unconsciously move to touch Lance’s face.

Suddenly, the ajar door to Lance’s room is fully pushed open. “Lance, can you…” Marco stops and stands at the entrance gaping at the situation in front of him; two boys were laying on the bed, both half naked, one on top of the other and one of them stroking the other’s face. No matter how one looked at the situation, it could only be interpreted in one way.

There was a moment of awkward silence before it was broken by Lance. “Hey, Marco. Wha-what are you doing here?” Lance somehow manages to get off Keith and tries to sound as calm as possible but fails miserably.

“It’s not what it looks like.” Keith stutter out.

“Yeah… I don’t want to know the details.” Marco says looking everywhere but at them. “At least close the door there are children here.”

“It was just an accident,” Lance whispers mostly to himself.

“Marco, wait!” Lance calls out to his brother who was quickly trying to leave the room. “Uh, why did you come to my room?

“Oh, right,” Marco says avoiding his brother’s eyes. “Um yeah. First, Mama is pissed that you missed church. Second, the whole family is going to the arcade this evening. So, you guys are coming too.”

“Let me guess, we don’t have a choice in the matter.”

“Nope. Mama’s orders.” Marco finally meets Lance’s eyes.

“Got it! We will be ready.”

A few minutes pass by after Marco leaves the room. “So, the arcade huh?” Keith says trying to fill the silence.

“Yeah,” Lance says slowly turning around to face Keith.

They awkwardly stare at each other for a few more minutes. The silence was starting to get very uncomfortable for Lance, so he smirks and says, “So, Keith… what just happe—”

“No.” Keith interrupts him. “Don’t continue that sentence.”

“Wha--?! I didn’t even say anything!”

“You didn’t have to,” Keith explains. “You were going to make a lame joke about what just happened, and I have a feeling that it is not gonna end well.”

Lance looks at Keith and frowns. That is exactly what he was about to do except for the lame part. My jokes aren’t lame. Lance thinks to himself, but for once he was glad that Keith interrupted him before he could say anything stupid.

Keith slowly walks toward the open window through which he could see his old home. He stares at it for a while before saying, “Lance?”

“Yeah?”

“Let’s go and pay my old home a little visit.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.” Keith gives Lance a small smile.

“Okay, great.” Lance was more excited to revisit Keith’s old house than he cared to admit.

“But before that, I want breakfast.” Keith quickly pulls a dark red T-shirt over his head. “I am starving.”

“Now that you mention it…” Lance says while grabbing a light blue T-shirt on his way out.

Chapter Text

After eating a wonderful breakfast prepared by Pauline, the two boys walk over to the house next door. Keith stood in front of his old home looking at it as different emotions stirred inside him. The house looked dark and abandoned totally contrasting Lance’s house next door, the only thing that added a little cheerful aura to the house was the flowers growing in the front yard which Pauline was still properly taking care.

Keith sighs heavily before unlocking the front door and walking in, Lance follows behind silently. As soon as they enter both boys cough at the sudden change in atmosphere. The inside of the house looked gray, it smelled like dust and mould. All the furniture was covered with a white sheet to keep it from getting dusty. It was probably Shiro. Keith makes a mental note to thank him later.

As Keith walked through the house, he recognized the house and the rooms, but it did not feel like the same house he used to live in when his parents were alive. The warmth he used to feel is gone and the house without the flowers to give it some colour seemed dull and boring. But more importantly, his loving mother and father were not there waiting for Keith to come back home. And they never will be. A silent truth passes through Keith’s head

“Ouch. Dammit.” Keith comes back to his senses and sees Lance hopping around on one leg.

“You alright?”

“Yeah, I will live,” Lance says already recovering from the pain. Keith looks at him who is aimlessly walking around the halls. For some reason, he looked excited and knowing Lance it must be because he is back at Keith’s house after so many years. That’s so Lance. Keith smiles and slowly that smile disappears into a frown. I have already lost two people I love. I am not willing to lose him too. I WILL NOT lose Lance. Keith finally decides to break the ice and address the issue that has been hanging in the air between them for a while now.

Keith looks at Lance for a while before saying, “Lance, I am sorry.”

Lance looks at Keith confused as hell. “… What?”

Keith stays silent for a few seconds before quietly saying, “I said I am sorry.”

Something about the atmosphere around Keith makes Lance want to run towards Keith and hug him and tell him everything was alright, but instead, he just slowly walks towards Keith and asks, “For what, Keith?”

“For leaving…” Keith whispers with his head hanging low.

Lance was a little taken back by the sudden statement. “What brought this on so suddenly?”

“It’s not suddenly,” Keith says refusing to look at Lance. “I have always wanted to apologize.”

“Keith, you already have apologized to me for that. You don’t have to worry about it.”

“But it didn’t work.” Keith’s whisper was barely audible to Lance. “You haven’t forgiven me for it.”

“That’s not true,” Lance says in a tight voice that was not convincing at all. Suddenly all of Keith’s emotions turn into anger.

“Why would you lie to me so blatantly when it is so obvious?” Keith says in a loud voice. “I don’t know whether you have actually convinced yourself that you have put the past behind us and forgiven me, but guess what Lance, you haven’t. The distance and the wall you have built between us since I came back is proof of that. You know, all this time I have been feeling like I have been living with a stranger and it was only yesterday that I finally got to see the Lance from my memories. Just admit it, you are angry at me and frustrated, and you want more than anything to punch me in the face. So, why don’t you jus—”

A strong fist suddenly meets Keith’s face, the sudden impact throws Keith towards the floor. He looks up to see a very pissed off Lance, but Keith was just as pissed and was not the type of person to receive a punch and just sit back. He launches towards Lance and punches him multiple times, Lance equally returns those punches. They go at each other like that for a while, taking out their anger out on each other. After a few minutes, the two boys collapse on the floor due to exhaustion. They lay side by side panting heavily, their bodies aching due to all the fighting. 

“I don’t hate you.” Lance finally gasps out. “I hate myself.”

Keith does not reply but merely lay there waiting for Lance to continue. Lance slowly sits up feeling the swelling on his stomach where Keith had punched when he first launched at him. He turns around and slowly looks at Keith who had blood pouring out from a cut on his lips and his nose.

“But you are right. I was angry and frustrated.” Lance sighs. “And I put a distance between us because I felt… Well, otherwise what happened just now would have happened sooner.”

“If I had a choice, I preferred getting hit sooner,” Keith says slowly sitting up. “I know how to handle physical pain but emotional…”

“I didn’t want to hurt you.” Lance looks broken. “For me, it was better to pretend everything was alright than to face my emotions and deal with it. I mean, look what happened when I face my emotions.”

“Personally, I don’t think you reacted that badly.”

Lance raises an eyebrow. “Keith, you literally have blood all over your face. This could not have gone any worse.”

“Well, you could have killed me, but you didn’t.” Keith says in a ‘as a matter of fact’ voice.

“You are optimistic at the weirdest moments,” Lance says shaking his head.

“So, how are you feeling?” Keith asks.

“Satisfied.” Lance slowly smiles at Keith. “Hey, I know why you left and that’s why I forgave you a long time ago. I really did. But I was angry at myself for not being there for you and stopping you. But when you came back, I was pissed off at you for making me angry at myself. So, you know it kind of build up over the years.” Lance looks at Keith. “Does that make any sense to you?”

Keith blankly stares at Lance and then says, “Okay, I didn’t catch any of that, but I think I got the gist of it. Does this mean we are good?”

Lance laughs lightly before standing up and holding his hand out towards Keith which he gladly takes to pull himself up to his feet. “Yeah, we are good,” Lance replies. “Why don’t we go back home and get ourselves treated?”

“Okay,” Keith replies to Lance who was already walking towards the front door. “Hey, Lance.”

“Mm?” He turns around to look at Keith.

“Please stop blaming yourself for what happened to me,” Keith says sincerely. “It’s not your fault. The only person to be blamed is me.”

Lance gives him a small smile. “Okay, I will try. Thank you, Keith.” With that Lance walks out the door, Keith follows right behind him.

Chapter Text

When the two boys finally got back to Lance’s house, they were received with surprised gasps and shocked stares from Veronica, Luis, Marco and Rachel. There was a long silence as everyone in the living room looked up and down at the two bloodied boys. It was Veronica who finally broke the silence.

“What the hell happened?!??” She looks at Lance and then at Keith.

“Oh, I fell down the stairs,” Keith answers nonchalantly.

Veronica turns to look at Lance. “I didn’t want Keith to feel lonely so, I pushed myself off the stairs.” Keith gives Lance a ‘really?’ look before turning back to Veronica. She looks around at her sibling for a little help, but they just go back to what they were doing before. Veronica sighs giving up, then helps Lance and Keith treat their wounds.

“That should do it.” She says after treating Keith, they were in Lance’s room. “Are you really fine?”

Keith looks at Veronica and smiles. “Yeah.” He looks at Lance who was curiously going through and examining every object in the first aid kit. “We really are fine now. So, you can stop worrying about us, okay?”

“Alright.” She gives Keith one last look before giving him a relaxed smile. “Oh yeah, we are not going to the arcade anymore, Lance.”

Lance’s head snaps up. “What?! Why?! I was looking forward to beating Keith’s ass in all the games.”

“I would have liked to see you try,” Keith replies with a smirk.

“Well, Mama said we will be going to the amusement park,” Veronica says walking towards the door. “Apparently, the kids wanted to go. Plus, Marco’s got some coupons.”

A few minutes after Veronica leaves, Lance walks over to his closet and comes back with a guitar in his hand. He sits next to Keith who was sitting cross-legged on his bed.

“That’s your old guitar.” Keith states. “I didn’t think you still had it.”

“Well, didn’t feel like throwing it away.” He says while tuning the guitar. “Okay, here goes.”

He starts thrumming the strings, it starts off slow but quickly picks up the pace and soon Lance’s voice fills the room,

Every step I take, towards you babe

It’s filled with my love.

Just stay right there, I’ll be coming

Towards your love.

Where ever you are, I’ll keep running

Towards you, oh baby you…

Lance stops playing, quickly grabs a paper and pen and writes down what he just sang. He looks up to Keith who just sat there staring at him. Keith has always known Lance to be a good singer and a composer, but when he sings a new song it always surprises Keith. His voice is so soft and beautiful, it takes Keith’s breath away. Though there are certain times when his voice makes Keith want to choke him to death.

“So, how was it?” Lance asks.

Keith’s face breaks into a surprised smile. “It was good. It was really good. How long have you been working on that?”

“Nah, that was just off the top of my head.”

“Wow! That’s amazing, Lance. It was beautiful.”

“Well, I had a beautiful inspiration sitting in front of me,” Lance smirks, but his eyes showed the sincerity in his words. Keith rolls his eyes and shoves Lance, getting off the bed. Lance just laughs it off.

“We need to get ready for our family outing… or whatever you call this.” Keith says.

“Yeah.” Lance stands up, stretching his hands. “Before that, let’s go have lunch. I can’t have fun on an empty stomach.”

“Sure.”

****

At 2:00pm everyone had gotten into a car. Lance, Keith, Rachel and Veronica had gotten into Lance’s car. Lance’s mom and dad had gotten into Marco’s car while Luis, his wife and children drove in another. It had been a long time since Keith and Lance had been to the amusement park, while Lance knew it was about an hour away from their home, he wasn’t sure he would get the directions right. So, he just drove behind Marco’s car. Rachel and Veronica were talking about random stuff in the back seat, surprisingly not taking the opportunity to tease the two boys in the front. Keith took out his phone and connected it to the aux cord, he clicked on his favourite playlist and immediately Emperor’s New Clothes started playing. Lance turns around raising both his eyebrows at Keith, giving him an odd look, but he doesn’t say anything.

“Keith, play High Hopes next,” Rachel says from the back.

“Sure.”

“You guys have the worst taste in music,” Lance says shaking his head.

“Hey, Panic! At the Disco has awesome music.” Rachel argues back.

“Lance’s taste in music is limited,” Veronica adds in. “You need to learn to expand your horizons, Lance.”

“Oh, come on! Not you too, Veronica!” Lance sighs. “Well, whatever.”

The starting tunes to High Hopes start to play as Lance makes a turn into the highway. A few more minutes later they arrive at their destination, everyone excitedly hops out of their respective cars. Luis and Lance’s dad go to the counter to buy tickets for everyone, soon the whole family was standing inside the amusement park.

“Man, this place is packed!” Lance says looking around.

“Well yeah, it is the long weekend,” Luis replies.

“Okay, everyone. No one should wander off alone.” Pauline says to everyone. “All of you should be in pairs or a group. Understood?” Everyone replies with a “yes” or “yeah.”

“Meet back here at 9:00pm. Call us if anything happens.” Everyone nods their heads.

The whole family splits off into three groups, it was the same group as the ones in the car. So, Keith, Lance, Rachel and Veronica were one group.

“So, which one do yo—”

“Nightmare Lane!” Keith and Rachel answer simultaneously, interrupting Veronica.

“Did you even have to ask?” Lance asks chuckling at an excited Keith and Rachel. “They have been obsessed with that ride since they were kids.”

“I know,” Veronica replies. “Keith and Rachel, rollercoaster fanatics!” She makes a dramatic introduction in front of Lance, he just chuckles at his sister’s childishness.

Keith and Rachel basically run towards their favourite ride like a bunch of five-year-old, Lance and Veronica follow right behind them.

“You have got be kidding me!” Lance says as he looks at the long line of people waiting to ride the Nightmare Lane.

“Come on! If we don’t hurry up, the line is gonna get longer.” Rachel drags both her sibling towards the long line, Keith had already joined the queue.

Lance walks through the crowd, finally getting to Keith’s side. “You look excited.”

“Do you know when the last time was, I got on this ride?” Keith looked way too excited for this.

“No. I don’t know.” Lance replies.

“Exactly! Its been that long, Lance.” Keith looks at Lance for a while before noticing there was something off about him, but he doesn’t comment on it.

After waiting for what seemed like forever, they get on the ride. To Keith and Rachel’s disappointed, the ride starts and finishes way too quickly, they go on a few more rides.

“Okay let’s go on that one,” Veronica says pointing at a mountainous looking ride.

“You guys, go ahead,” Lance says slowly taking a seat on a bench. “I will be here.”

“You sure?” His oldest sister asks.

“Yeah, just need to rest for a while.”

“Okay, let’s go guys.”

“Actually, I am gonna stay with Lance,” Keith says turning towards the two girls. They look between Lance and then Keith, shrugs and just walks off towards the ride. Keith slowly takes a seat beside Lance.

“Are you alright?”

“I am fine, Keith. You didn’t have to stay.”

“Don’t lie to me. You are not fine.” Keith looks directly into Lance’s blue eyes.

“What?”

“Lance, amusement parks are like one of your favourite places on the planet.” Keith states. “But right now, you look like you want to be anywhere but here.”

Lance simply stares at Keith, slightly pouting.

“So, what’s wrong?”

Lance sighs heavily. “Everything hurts.”

“Huh?”

“My head hurts…my stomach hurts, and I just want to lie down somewhere,” Lance complains.

“What happened?” Keith asks genuinely confused, Lance looks at Keith accusingly. “Oh… I am sorry?”

“How the hell are you fine?”

“Guess, I am stronger than you,” Keith says, Lance glares at him. “Sorry, my bad.”

“I hate you.”

“No, you don’t.’ Keith replies smugly, he pauses for a second before asking. “Hey, do you want something to eat.”

“Yes, please.”

Keith slowly stands up. “What do you want?”

“Get me a cheeseburger.”

“Alright, stay here. I will be right back.” With that Keith leaves towards the food stalls.

Lance lies down on the bench for a few minutes before it gets too uncomfortable so, he just sits up and rests his head on the back of the bench, he closes his eyes and rests in that position for a while. His head was throbbing, he could feel pain in most parts of his body. I need some Advil or something… Lance was also really starting to get hungry, he decides to go look for Keith since he was taking way too long. As he was leaving, a girl with long blonde hair approaches him. She basically jumps right in front of him catching him off guard. He stares at her surprised by the girl’s sudden appearance.

“Hi.” The girl says smiling way too sweetly than necessary. “I am Nyma.”

Lance pauses for a few seconds, noticing that she was wearing way too much makeup “…Hi?”

“Are you alone.”

“Well, right now yes. But—"

“Great!” The girl named Nyma exclaims coming closer to Lance. “What’s your name?”

Lance lets out a long breath. “It’s Lance.”

“Lance that’s a wonderful name.” She was way to close to Lance, he could smell the strong perfume on her, it was making his headache worse. Lance carefully takes a step back, away from her.

“Yeah, um look… It’s nice meeting you and all, but I really gotta go and find my—”

“Oh, come on. Let’s have some fun, Lance. Its an amusement park after all.” She wraps her hand around Lance’s arm trying to drag him towards the ride.

Keith had seen the whole scene unfold before him, he could tell that Lance was trying to get away from the girl, but that did not stop him from being pissed off or jealous. He walks over to Lance and the girl, he could hear Lance say, “No, I really don’t want to—”

“Hey, babe,” Keith says nonchalantly as soon as they are within earshot. “What’s going on?”

“Keith!” Relief floods over Lance’s features as soon as he sees Keith’s face. He untangles his arm from the girl’s and walks over to Keith. “Actually, I was just about to come searching for you.”

“Who is this?” The blonde girls ask, clearly not liking the interruption.

“This is, my—" Lance starts.

“Boyfriend.” Keith completes Lance’s sentence, staring daggers at the girl. She looks at Lance as if to ask if this is true.

“Yep, he is… He’s my boyfriend.” Lance confirms.

Her face slowly turns to shock, then disgust. “If you were gay, you should have said so from the beginning.” She shouts as she walks away from them.

“For the hundredth time, I am bi, not gay,” Lance says quietly to no one in particular. He turns around to look at Keith. “Well, that was bold of you.”

“Someone had to save your ass.” Keith hands Lance his cheeseburger and drink. The two boys eat in silence, watching different people walk by them.

Keith looks at his phone and says, “Let’s go back to the meeting point. It’s almost time to leave.”

“Yeah.”

They walk in silence for a few minutes before Keith speaks again. “Back then, I was surprised.”

Lance raises an eyebrow questioningly.

“You weren’t flirting back. With that girl…You really not feeling well, huh?” Keith looks at Lance worriedly.

“Man, you have no idea,” Lance replies. “Plus, she is not really my type.”

“Really?” Keith smirks. “I thought anything that falls under the category of human is your type.”

“Nah.”

“Then, what is your type?”

Lance puts his finger to his chin in a thinking gesture. “Hmm… If I have to say my type… I like someone with black hair, purple eyes, pale skin and a salty attitude.”

“Salty attitude, huh?” Keith tries to sound upset, but the smile on his face fails him.

“Yep. That’s my perfect type.” Lance smirks, Keith just shakes his head trying not to chuckle.

“You are an idiot.”

“Aww, but you love me.” Lance throws both his arms around Keith’s shoulders from the back.

“No, I don’t,” Keith says slightly chuckling at Lance. “I definitely don’t.”

Lance looks at the beautiful smiling Keith in front of him, he tightens his grip around Keith’s shoulder and says in a serious voice. “Just wait for me a while longer, alright?”

“What?” Keith turns around and looks at Lance’s face. The joking expression gone, replaced by a serious, apologetic look. Keith’s face softens and heart races as he stares at the face of the boy he has been in love with for so long. One look and Keith knew what lance meant so, he simply replies, “Okay.”

“Thank you, Keith.” Soon Lance’s playful expression is back on his face. “Well, then let’s go before they decide to leave without us.”

“They won’t leave without us,” Keith says confidently.

“Well, I don’t wanna take any chances.”

“You look better.” Keith notices as they are walking towards the entrance of the park.

“Oh yeah, kinda. My body still hurts.” Lance frowns slightly. “But my headache is gone.”

“Well, that’s good.” Keith looks up to see the rest of the family standing by the entrance. “There they are. Race you there.”

“Hey, that’s not fair. I am injured.” Lance shouts, running after Keith.

Chapter Text

“No mama, we have to go,” Lance says the next morning, walking towards his car.

“At least stay for lunch,” Pauline says to her youngest son.

“Can’t do that. I have… stuff to do.” Keith curiously looks at Lance.

Unexpectedly, Lance wanted to go back home sooner than Keith had expected. Keith has no problem with leaving early, but he was hoping to stay longer and spend more time with Lance’s family. He was going to suggest staying longer, but something about Lance was bothering him, he had been acting very strange ever since he woke up. A part of Keith wanted to ask Lance what was wrong, but for the time being, he decided he wouldn’t say anything.

So, after saying his goodbyes to everyone, Keith silently gets into the passenger seat. On the drive home, Keith takes the chance and plays his favourite songs in the car. Surprisingly, Lance does not complain about his taste in music, this just bothers Keith even further. He couldn’t take it anymore, he lowers the music to confront Lance.

“Okay, what’s going on?”

“Huh? What?” Lance asks, looking genuinely surprised by the question.

Keith searches his confused face for one whole minute. “You have been acting weird since this morning. And why did you want to leave so early?”

“Oh. That.” The confused expression disappears from Lance’s face only to be replaced by a steady, neutral expression, Keith finds this very uncomfortable.

“That?” Keith asks. “Care to elaborate?”

“It’s just that I have some stuff to take care of.”

“Yeah, you said that before.” Lance glances sideways to see a slightly pouting Keith, he couldn’t help but chuckle.

“It’s nothing you have to worry about, Keith,” Lance says calmly. “Plus, we need to be at Voltron this evening, Matt is gonna be the DJ for tonight, and Pidge insisted we go. Everyone is gonna be there, it's gonna be fun.”

“Yeah, I know. But I wanted to spend more time with them.” Keith says honestly.

 “I get that, but why are you so upset though?” Lance asks, they were getting closer to their apartment. “I mean, you can go back anytime you want.”

Keith looks at Lance in surprise, he never thought about that. He kind of just told himself this would be the last time. That’s right, I don’t have to hide anymore. Keith thinks to himself as a smile slowly appears on his face.

“We are here,” Lance says stopping the car in front of their apartment.

“You are not going to park the car?”

“No,” Lance answers simply. “As I said, I have some stuff to take care of.”

“Okay…?” Keith does not bother asking any further questions, he knows that he will only get vague answers. So, Keith gets out of the car, walking off towards their apartment.

Lance finally lets out the tensed breath he was holding, mentally thanking Keith for not asking too many questions. After watching Keith walk into their apartment, Lance starts to drive away from their building. Within minutes he reaches his destination, after parking his car in an available spot he walks to the front door of Voltron which had a sign that read ‘closed.’ He dumbly knocks on the door hoping someone would open it. Feeling stupid he gives up and was about to call Shiro when the door swings open.

“Lance!” A half surprised, half confused Adam stood in front of him. “What are you doing here so early?”

“Hi,” Lance says slowly. “I was gonna go to your apartment, but I thought I should check here first.”

“Is everything, alright?” Adam asks clearly concerned about Lance. “You seem… Nervous?”

Lance doesn’t reply, mostly because he had no idea what to say. Now that I think about it, why the hell did I come here?!!

“Lance, do you want to come inside,” Adam asks kindly.

“Yeah, thanks.” Lance thankfully smiles at Adam before walking into the bar. The place as expected was completely empty and silent.

Adam walks to stand behind the counter while Lance takes a seat in front of it. “Do you want anything to drink?”

“… No, I am good.”

“So, what’s wrong?”

Lance sighs heavily putting his forehead on the counter. “Nothing is wrong. In fact, everything is great.”

“You certainly don’t look great.”

“Gee, thanks, Adam.” He looks up to see Adam’s eyebrows raised, questioningly. A few minutes of silence pass before Lance says, “I am just a little bit nervous and maybe a little worried.”

“About?”

“… Keith.” Lance mumbles.

 “Now, things are starting to make a little more sense.” Adam smiles knowingly. “So, what about Keith?”

“I love him,” Lance says without any hesitation.

“Really?” Adam’s voice was dripping with sarcasm. “None of us noticed that.”

Lance rolls his eyes. “Is Shiro here?”

“No, his home. Why?”

“Well, I came here hoping he could give me some advice.” Lance sighs slightly. “He seems to be good at these kinds of things.”

Adam incredulously stares at Lance. “You came here for dating advice from…Takashi!?”

“Um… Yeah?”

Adam closes his eyes, after taking a deep breath he lets it out. “Lance, going to Takashi for dating advice is a horrible idea, he doesn’t know the first thing about dating.”

“But I thought he is the one who asked you out…”

“Yeah, in a family restaurant’s washroom!” Adam says disbelievingly.

Lance bites his lower lip trying to suppress a smile, he fails. “Well, in his defence you did go out with him.”

Adam comes around the counter to sit next to Lance. “Well, he was just lucky; I already liked him for a long time.” He pauses. “But not as long as certain two lovestruck boys.”

“Lovestruck, huh?”

“Just tell him, Lance,” Adam says. “He loves you, too.”

“I know.”

“Then, what’s the problem?”

“The problem is… I feel like I should do something big when I confess to him. You know, like flowers, candles, romantic atmosphere and all that stuff.”

“Lance, you are confessing not proposing.”

“At this point, it's all the same,” Lance mutters under his breath.

“I don’t think Keith really cares about all that stuff.”

“I know.” Lance whines, stretching his hands out on the counter. “But I care.”

“You are worried about the most stupid things, Lance,” Adam says casually. “You should just con—”

Lance suddenly sits up with a determined look on his face. “You know what, I am going to confess to him today.”

Adam looks at Lance shocked by the sudden change. “Well, that was a fast recovery.”

“I have made up my mind,” Lance says with the most confident smile plastered to his face. “There really is no point in waiting any longer. Plus, I just came up with a great idea.”

“That’s the spirit,” Adam says encouragingly.

“Actually, I kinda need your help for this to work.”

“What did you have in mind?” Adam asks cooperatively

Lance smiles happily before spilling his secret idea to Adam.

Chapter Text

As Lance was driving back to their apartment, he couldn’t contain the excitement he felt when he thought about what he had planned for tonight. He sprints up the stairs to the 4th floor, a wide and bright smile plastered to his face. When he gets to their door, he stands outside for a few minutes to calm his nerves. Finally, after putting on a neutral expression, he walks into their apartment. As soon as he enters, a delicious smell enters his nose making his stomach growl in hunger. He follows the smell leading him straight to their kitchen where Keith stands presumably busy preparing lunch. As soon as Lance sees Keith, his excitement takes over again, losing control over his own actions. He runs towards Keith tightly wrapping his arms around the shorter male, slightly lifting him from the floor and as quickly placing him back down.

“Wha-?!!” Keith is startled by Lance’s sudden appearance and action. “What the hell are you doing Lance?!?!! I have a knife in my hands!”

Keith turns around to see Lance’s signature grin on his face, but there was a softness to it. “Why are you looking at me like that?” Keith asks confused.

“It’s nothing.” Lance shrugs. “I am just super happy and excited for tonight.”

“Okay…?” Keith was a hundred percent confused now, but he doesn’t push the topic; instead, he goes back to preparing lunch. “Are you hungry?”

“God, I am starving!” Lance replies. “What’s today’s special?”

Keith smiles slightly before replying. “BBQ Chicken Pasta.”

“Hmm, fancy!” Lance says while trying to get the grilled chicken from the platter.

“No,” Keith says after swatting Lance’s hands away, causing him to pout. “Just go wash your hands and prepare the table.”

“Okay,” Lance mumbles still pouting, Keith chuckles after Lance was out of earshot. After he completes making the pasta, he goes on to make the salad. He grabs all the necessary vegetables and dressings from the fridge, quickly throwing them all together into a bowl to make a salad.

“Keeeiith…. I am hungry.” Lance whines as he comes to stand next to Keith.

“Yeah, okay. The pasta is ready, you can take that to the table.” Lance quickly obliges, carrying the pasta bowl to the table, Keith quickly follows behind him with the salad. They settle down into a comfortable silence, serving themselves.

“Keith, this is sooooo good!” Lance was basically gobbling down the pasta. “I am so glad I didn’t eat at Voltron.”

“Huh? You were at Voltron?” Keith says slowly looking up. “Why?”

“Um… Well, I went there to talk to Adam.” Lance didn’t really feel like lying, he was too concentrated on eating to lie. “Actually, I went there to talk to Shiro, but he wasn’t there so…” Keith looks at him curiously as Lance serves himself more pasta.

“Why did you want to talk to Shiro?”

“I wanted to ask him something…” Lance says cautiously without looking up and quickly changes the subject. “Oh yeah, Adam asked us to come by a little early if possible. He needs our help with some preparations for tonight…”

Keith slightly narrows his eyes waiting for Lance to look up, when he doesn’t Keith sighs loudly and pretends like Lance didn’t so obviously change the subject.

“What?” Lance asks finally looking up.

“You are unbelievable…”

“What? Why?”

“Nothing.” Keith sighs again. “So, we are leaving early for tonight, right?”

“Yeah.” Lance gets up taking his plate, then grabbing Keith’s. “I will take that.” Lance walks into the kitchen to wash their dishes. Keith follows behind him with their leftovers, he wraps them up before putting it in the refrigerator. After cleaning up, Keith helps Lance dry the dishes.

The two boys decide to watch a movie just to kill time until they have to get ready to go to Voltron. As usual, for about thirty minutes they fought about what movie to watch, finally deciding to watch The Breakfast Club. They spend the next hour and a half watching the moving after which it was time for them to get ready. Keith and Lance went their separate ways to get prepared for the night. Keith is quick to get ready so, once he was dressed, he just laid down on his bed scrolling through his social media. Lance, on the other hand, takes forever to get dressed, he has way too many beauty routines. Finally, at 6:00 PM both boys make their way down to Lance’s car, driving all the way to Voltron. They were quickly welcomed by Shiro at the front counter who gives Lance a knowing and encouraging smile, which Keith instantly notices.

“Let me guess, you want me to pretend I didn’t see that?” Keith asks turning to look at Lance.

“Please do.” Lance sighs.

“Hey, dorks.” They turn around to see Pidge, right behind her stood Matt and Hunk.

“Hi, Pidge.” Shiro greets cheerfully. “Matt, Hunk.”

“Hey, guys.” Matt and Hunk say simultaneously.

“Hi.” Keith greets them.

After the initial greeting they make small talks with each other, all the while Lance was awfully quiet, the reality of what was about happen had finally hit him. Eventually, the group notices the silence emitting from the loudest and most talkative member of their group.

“Lance, are you alright?” Keith asks slightly concerned.

“What? Yeah… I mean, why wouldn’t I be alright?” Lance starts to ramble. “Why would you ask that? What’s wrong?”

“Well, for starters you are awfully quiet,” Pidge says looking skeptical.

“Guys, I am sure Lance also has a lot on his mind.” Shiro comes to his aid, which Lance is so grateful for. “Lance, didn’t you want to ask Adam something? He is in the kitchen.”

At first, Lance looks confusedly at Shiro before getting what he is saying. “Yeah, right! That thing… Yeah, I have to ask Adam about….that…” Before he could mess up the situation more than he already has, he rushes into the kitchen.

“ADAM!” Lance exclaims running towards him, his breathing and heart rate was picking up, and it had nothing to do with the running. “Adam, I am- I am panicking. A lot.” Lance fans his face with his palms in an effort to calm himself.

“Woah Lance, calm down.” Adam pushes Lance towards a chair, Lance obliges and sits down. Adam kneels down in front of Lance on one knee. “Alright, now take a deep breath and let it out.” Lance follows Adam’s commands. “Repeat.” After a few more times, Lance finally calms down.

“Okay, now talk,” Adam says calmly.

Lance pauses for a second. “I don’t think I can do this.” He says it so quickly Adam barely registers the words he had spoken.

“Oh, come on Lance. You were so hyped up about it before.”

“Yeah, that was before I got here, and the reality sunk in.” Lance whines.

“What’s happening?” A calm voice comes up behind Lance. He turns around to see Shiro leaning against the wall, the expression on his face said that he somehow knew Lance was gonna lose his nerves at the last minute.

Adam simply sighs, shaking his head. “I feel like I am dealing with a high school girl in love.” He pauses for a moment. “Actually, this might be worse.” Shiro chuckles lightly.

Now, normally Lance would have had a snarky comeback but not today, both Adam and Shiro notices this.

“Hey…” Shiro starts coming to kneel down next to Adam. “Do you love him?”

Lance looks up like that is the most stupid question he has heard in his life, but answers anyway. “Of course, I do.”

“Are you sure?” Shiro asks quietly and calmly. “I mean like, how sure are you? 50% or like 80% sure?”

“I am sure, sure,” Lance says. “I am 100% sure I love him.”

Shiro nods, satisfied with Lance’s answer. He slowly gets up to his two feet and takes a deep breath before yelling, “THEN, GET OFF YOUR DAMN ASS, AND FUCKING TELL HIM THAT ALREADY!!!!” Both Adam and Lance stiffen in shock at Shiro’s sudden change and stares at him wide-eyed.

“What? What’s going on?” Hunk asks as he and Keith come barging into the kitchen.

“What happened? We heard someone yelling.” Keith says looking over at Lance, Shiro and Adam.

“Oh, everything is fine,” Shiro says going back to his normal self. “We were just talking to Lance.”

“Right,” Adam says standing up. “Keith, Hunk, can I count on you guys to help in the kitchen for a while?”

“Sure,” Hunk says without hesitating, and Keith simply nods.

“Okay, come with me,” Adam says walking away from Shiro and Lance. Keith gives Lance a confused look before following Hunk.

“Lance, let’s go see how Matt and Pidge are doing,” Shiro says.

“Okay,” Lance says, still shaken up from Shiro’s outburst before, though Lance has to admit Shiro’s sudden outburst did boost his morale.

Lance saunters behind Shiro as they head into the big hall at the very end of the bar where the dance floor is, Pidge and Matt were there up on the stage setting everything up.

“How is it coming, guys?” Shiro asks.

“Almost done,” Matt replies.

“Um, Shiro why does Lance look like he just saw a ghost?” Pidge inquires.

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Shiro says smugly. “He is just recovering from a shock treatment he received back in the kitchen.” Pidge and Matt look in between Lance and Shiro confusedly while Lance glares at Shiro.

“Do you guys need any help?” Lance asks hoping that doing something else other than overthinking will keep him distracting.

“Not really.” Comes Pidge’s immediate response.

Shiro notices Lance’s disappointed expression. “Why don’t you come and help me at the counter, Lance?”

Lance perks up. “Okay.”

Lance spend the rest of the evening helping Shiro while Keith and Hunk helped Adam in the kitchen, the Holt siblings worked together on setting up the music. Time went by quickly as everyone was busy doing one thing or another. More and more people were coming into the bar as time moved forward.

It was 8:00 PM, only an hour left before Matt is able to show off his DJing skills, but before that Lance has a little performance of his own planned for the night, though he really was having second thoughts about it. He summons all the courage he can find in his body and walks up to the stage hesitantly grabbing the microphone from Shiro who once again smiles at him encouragingly. Once on the stage, Lance looks around at his audience. There weren’t many people there since there was still an hour till the dance floor opens, but there were enough people there to make Lance anxious. He saw Keith with the rest of the gang standing right in the middle of the dance floor. Shiro and Adam were looking up at him with encouraging expressions, the rest of his friends looked confused as hell, including Keith.

Lance takes a deep breath before raising the microphone close to his mouth. “So, um… My name is Lance. I wanted to do a special performance tonight. For, someone…” Lance looks at Keith to see realization slowly dawning on his face, suddenly words were flowing confidently from Lance’s mouth. “Now, this is gonna be super cheesy, and sappy so, for those who can’t handle those things I highly advise you to cover your ears.” There were a few snickers around the room, but Keith’s hands quickly go up to cover his ears. “Except you Keith. You have to sit through this whole thing. Sorry, not sorry.” Keith’s eyes widen, lowering his hands from his ears, he groans slightly.

"Here comes the cheesy part, I am gonna sing. I wrote this song thinking about the most beautiful, and amazing person I have ever met in my life. He is also someone very important to me."  Lance looks to see Keith covering his mouth with one hand in a subtle effort to cover the evident blush on his face. Lance smiles and his expression softens as looks straight into Keith’s violet eyes. “This song is for the boy I have loved for a very, very long time,” Lance says sincerely.

A soft tune starts to play from the speakers as Lance starts singing,

Can't say how the days will unfold,

Can't change what the future may hold

But, I want you in it

Every hour, every minute

This world can race by far too fast

Hard to see while it's all flying past

But, it's clear now,

When you're standing here now

I am meant to be wherever you are next to me

All I want to do

Is come running home to you

Come running home to you

And all my life I promise to

Keep running home to you

Keep running home

To you

And I could see it

Right from the start

Right from the start

That you would be

Be my light in the dark

Light in the dark

Oh, you gave me no other choice

But to love you

All I want to do

Is come running home to you

Come running home to you

And all my life I promise to

Keep running home to you

Keep running home

Home to you

Can't say how the days will unfold

Can't change what the future may hold

But, I want you in it

Every hour, every minute

Keith stood there watching Lance as his voice carried over to him. Everything Lance was doing was cheesy, sappy and super cringy, but it was so Lance and Keith couldn’t help but love every second of it. Every word Lance sung went straight into Keith’s heart, Lance was singing for Keith, it was meant for him. Keith watched as Lance continued to sing confidently, the lyrics leaving his lips naturally. Keith was trapped under Lance’s spell, he was in a trance and didn’t even notice that at some point Lance had started walking towards him. When the song stops, Lance is standing right in front of Keith, half smirking and half smiling.

“Hi,” Lance says walking into Keith’s personal space.

“Hi,” Keith replies trying to suppress the smile that was creeping up on his face. “Why couldn’t you just confess like a normal person?”

“Where is the fun in that?” Lance slowly but confidently wraps both his hands around Keith’s waist. “Plus, that was pretty normal under my standards.”

“Why do I even bother asking?” Keith says shaking his head. “You do realize that it was super cringy, right?”

“I do,” Lance says proudly before bringing his lips down onto Keith’s soft ones. Even though he was expecting it, Keith was still surprised when Lance starts kissing him, but he was quick to kiss back. Keith brings both his arms to wrap around Lance's neck, his fingers slide into Lance’s hair. Lance’s grip on Keith’s waist tightens, pulling Keith closer towards his chest. Their lips move in sync with each like they had done this a thousand times before, even though it was their first time kissing each. The two boys put all the love and yearning they had held back for years into this one kiss, it was slow and passionate, but there was an underlying hunger in it, too. Finally, they break apart for air. For a while, they just stand there with their foreheads touching and holding each other.

“Hey, Keith?”

“Hmm?”

“I love you.”

The brightest smile lights up Keith’s face. “I love you too, Lance.”

The night was just beginning for the two lovers, and it was going to be a night they will remember for years to come.