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Lance has been gone for three days.
It was his nephew’s birthday and Lance has spent the last few days with his family in Cuba. And since this week has been Hell—capital H Hell—at the Garrison, their last mission being a bit more chaotic and complicated than usual, Lance and Keith and probably the whole damn building has been running on four hours of sleep, caffeine flowing in their veins and desks heavy with paperwork, Lance made sure to ask Shiro to look after Keith, knowing what a mess of a workaholic he gets on this kind of times.
Lance has been gone for three goddamn days and he really believed Shiro was the reliable one.
“What. Have. You. Done,” Lance deadpans, taking in the view of his and Keith’s apartment.
It’s nothing much different, save for the bitter smell of something that had been burnt, one sofa is flipped upside down and three “adults” are slouched on the said sofa, laughing like mad people.
“Oh, my—guys, GUYS!” Keith hisses between laughter and Lance almost drops his bag because his hair—Keith’s ink black hair—is as white as Snow White’s fucking butt. “Lance is here, act normal,” he says, probably thinking that his voice is a whisper when he’s really just shouting.
Lance lowers his bag on the floor and steps closer to them.
“Hey, Lance, babe, honey,” Keith starts, giggling. “Everything’s okay.”
“Are you high?” Lance asks after taking in Keith’s bloodshot eyes.
“Tell him no, Keith,” Shiro whispers from behind, trying his best to get Adam to his feet.
“No, Keith,” Keith repeats like a parrot and Lance is this close to kicking Shiro’s ass.
What the fuck.
“It’s fine, Takashi,” says Adam, finally steady on his feet and turns his gaze towards Lance. “Lance is cool. We had some edibles.”
“Yeah, I can smell the brownies,” Lance retorts dryly. “Why is my boyfriend Jack Frost?”
At this Shiro burst out laughing, folding into half and since he still has his hold on Adam’s hand, the other man stumbles on his feet.
“Lance, I,” Keith says and he’s crying?! “Jack is your boyfriend? I thought… I thought we were fine. You said you liked me!” he cries and Lance quickly moves forward so he’s standing in front of him.
Okay, scratch the anger, this is really funny.
“I am, I meant to say why was your hair looking like Jack’s hair,” he tells him slowly, like explaining something to a child. He tries to hide the amusement in his voice.
Keith makes an ‘oh’ sound and nods like he just understood the depths of Oriande.
“He’s lying Keith,” Shiro calls from behind, trying to hold back his laughter. “I saw him kissing Jack,” he says and immediately starts cackling. Lance glares at him.
“You kissed him!” Keith screeches with a broken voice and starts crying again.
Lord, give him patience.
“How much of the brownies did he have?” he turns to Adam.
“Relax, Lance,” he whines. “You used to be so fun.”
“I leave him with you two adults,” he points between them—Shiro’s still laughing and Lance thinks he might pass out if he doesn’t stop for a breath. “Adults who are planning to get married soon.”
“That’s it, from today on I’m changing your name to Larse,” Adam announces. “An arse with a useless L.”
Lance gasps, offended. “Take that back!” he walks past Keith and jabs his finger at Adam’s chest. The man looks smug and pleased with himself.
“He kissed him, Shiro,” Lance hears a sob followed by an incoherent murmur. “On the mouth, Shiro! I don’t go around kissing Mothman on the mouth, what gives!”
“I remember how fun you used to be,” Adam continues and examines his nails like the true diva he is. “Almost took you as an equal, Lance,” then he sighs, genuinely sad. “Should’ve guessed no one could be as awesome as me.”
Lance is ready to start this argument, like he’s ready, bitch, bring it on.
But then Keith sobs again and Shiro is laughing again and Adam is now staring at the ceiling like he sees the fucking Tooth Fairy flying above and Lance thinks the argument can wait for a while.
“Okay, just,” he breathes out. “Keith and Shiro, go drink some water,” he tells them.
Keith says something like should Jack drink water too? Huh, Lance? but Shiro manages to drag him into the kitchen.
“You,” he points at Adam. “Help me with the sofa.”
Adam is still staring at the ceiling and Lance just… gives up.
He lifts up the sofa and corrects it, grabs the dirty plates from the coffee table and opens the window—it smells like a Lava Man’s fart in here.
“Here,” he throws two blankets at Adam’s face. “You and Shiro can crash on the couch.”
Speaking of Shiro…
Lance walks into the kitchen and… yep. They are not drinking water.
Instead, Shiro is determined to climb on top of the fridge—failing at it miserably, by the way… And Keith is still having a breakdown because of Lance kissing a boy that’s not even real.
Lance decides if Shiro falls and breaks a bone it will be on Karma, so it’s not really his problem. He kneels down on the floor next to the puddle of tears that is Keith—a Keith with white hair, what even is his life anymore?
“Babe?” he speaks softly, a little timid. Lance gently pats him on the head.
“What,” he says, sniffing. Is Lance a horrible person for thinking Keith is adorable right now?
“Wanna get up and go to bed?”
“Why, is Jacky not available?” he scoffs but leans into his touch.
Lance should make Keith jealous more often, he’s so cute, oh my God.
“Keith, Jack Frost is not even a real person,” he says patiently, continuing with the petting. “Shiro was just messing with you.”
“I was not, Keith, I would never!” Shiro yells from where he’s struggling to fit on the top of the fridge. So, he did not fall down and break his neck, Karma’s a disappointment.
“Shiro, I swear to God I’ll stuff your mouth with wasabi!”
“Hah, I grew up breathing wasabi, so, try again!”
Lance squints at him and Shiro squints back.
Then Lance looks away and starts casually.
“I’ve heard about your skills, Shirogane,” Lance says, standing up. He fixes his jacket like it’s an overpriced suit. “How you organize your files like you were born to do just that.”
“What’re you getting at, McClain.”
“Oh, nothing, just thought how unbelievably sad it would be if you walked into your office tomorrow only to find all the dates and titles of your files completely disorganized,” he finishes and looks at Shiro dead in the eye. The man visibly swallows. “And the worst part,” Lance pauses, you know, for the dramatics. “Your precious binders would be placed in non. Alphabetical. Order.”
“Okay! Okay!” Shiro yells, raising his hands in surrender and almost falls from the fridge while doing so. “I’ll leave Keith alone, jeez. If I wanted an evil friend, I’d be drinking tea with Zarkon right now.”
Lance smirks and turns his attention to Keith again. He’s staring up at him in a wonderous expression like Lance has enlightened him with unbearable knowledge about the universe.
“What?” Lance asks and grips Keith’s arm to help him get up.
“I’m angry at you,” he says, in a voice that is everything but angry; he sounds almost surprised.
“For the last time, Keith,” Lance rolls his eyes and as soon as he’s sure Keith won’t fall down, he pours some water for him. “I did not cheat on you with a fictional character.”
“No, not because of that,” Keith tells him, shaking his white locks around. Lance follows the movement, and he can’t help but think that white is really pretty with his dark indigos.
Lance puts the glass of water in the other boy’s hand and tugs at his shirt to follow him out of the kitchen. “Let’s talk about that in bed, okay?”
“’kay.”
“Adam, your fiancé’s harassing my fridge,” he calls when he passes the living room. “If he breaks it, you’re buying us a new one and I’m a hardass about quality, remember that.”
Keith drinks the water in silence while Lance changes into his pajamas. He takes Keith’s shoes off and helps him get out of his jeans.
“I said, I’m angry,” Keith reminds him and unlike before, now his face is all grumpy, with furrowed brows and the cutest fucking pout on his lips. Lance leans in and kisses it.
“About what?” he asks and lifts the covers up, gesturing for him to get in. Keith does so, scooches close to Lance.
“I cradled you in my arms,” Keith says.
Lance waits for a follow-up but nope, they’re really doing this, they’re really talking about a Bonding Moment that happened years ago. Lance sighs, Keith probably won’t remember this tomorrow.
“I know.”
“You said you did not know,” Keith retorts, looking up at him from his eyelashes.
“I lied,” he admits, a little ashamed.
“Why?”
“Because you… you cradled me in your arms,” he says like that explains everything.
It does, though, because Keith had cradled him. In his arms. Lance had been held close in Keith’s arms. And he panicked, okay, Keith was hot and Lance was weak. He’s still weak.
“Okay,” Keith says, simply, and leans close to him, placing his head comfortably on Lance’s chest.
Lance sighs and starts playing with his hair. He twirls some strings between his fingers, staring at him with wide eyes—they’re not pure white, or greyish like Shiro’s, more like white and silver combined.
“I can’t believe you dyed your hair,” Lance whispers, scratching his head gently.
“Wait ‘til Shiro tells you about the earrings,” he snickers. “You’ll lose your shit.”
Lance pauses. Blinks up at the ceiling. Then blinks down on Keith’s puff of white hair.
“Keith, the what?”
“Earrings? You know, piercings for your ears—”
“You pierced your ears?!”
“What? When did Shiro tell you that?” Keith snaps his head up, looking around the dark bedroom. Then, confused and almost sounding lost, he whispers helplessly: “I was right here, how does he do that?”
“Babe, show me the earrings,” Lance says.
Without waiting for Keith’s response, he tucks the hair behind his right ear—it looks normal, without any holes—then does the same to his left side and— yep. There they are, two small dots of shiny metal, or is it crystal, Lance can’t quite make it out with the darkness around them.
“Are you mad?” Keith asks, carefully, and bites down on his lip.
“No, of course not,” Lance reassures, gently running a finger over the two gleaming spots. Keith flinches at his touch but doesn’t pull away. “I’m just really surprised.”
“They’re blue,” he informs and smiles at him with a cheeky, boyish smile and he looks so happy, Lance can almost feel the wiggle of his metaphorical tail. “Like your eyes.”
“You’re so sweet, you know that?” Lance tells him, squishing his face with his hands and kisses his cheekbones. He trails his lips down at the corner of his mouth, barely brushing against the other’s lips. He lingers there for a while, feeling the way Keith’s breath ghosts against his face.
“’m tired,” Keith mumbles and slumps down on Lance’s chest again. He yawns, and adds: “I hate when you’re not home.”
“I’m here now.”
“Yeah, I sleep better when you’re around,” he says and Lance kisses him on the temple, his chest threatening to spill all the butterflies out from him.
“I’m around now, cariño,” he murmurs, sliding an arm around Keith’s middle and holds him closer. Lance, too, sleeps better when Keith is around, if he’s being honest. He likes it, the feeling of Keith’s warmth so close to his body, the movement of his chest as he breathes. Likes falling asleep while brushing his fingers into the soft locks, likes waking up by velvet kisses and whispered sweet nothings against his skin.
Keith hums, his breathing already slow and steady.
Lance is dozing off when Keith speaks again.
“Hey, Lance?”
“Hm?”
“Can we still mess up Shiro’s folders?”
“Oh, definitely,” Lance nods.
“Okay, good night.”
“Night, babe.”
Another moment passes.
“Hey, Lance.”
“Yes?”
“How much do you think a hippo would cost?”
“Very expensive, Keith.”
“Oh. Okay, goodnight.”
This time, Lance is sure Keith has fallen asleep and he’s about to enter the blissful state himself, when—
“Hey, Lance, what do caterpillars do with all those legs?”
.
Keith does remember in the morning. He’s squinting down at Lance with a glare, like Lance just snatched the last cookie out of his hands and ate it.
Lance decides here and now that he is never. Leaving Keith with Shiro again.