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Keys clacked as Keith tapped away at the computer. Shiro leaned over his shoulder. “Are you sure that’s the best way to defeat that boss? I mean, you do you, man, but I’m a Paladin, and I know that lances work best against that beast. I should know. I spent weeks trying to beat him with a sword and shield.”
Keith grunted in frustration as half his health bar was swiped away with one single stroke of the enemy’s weapon. “Yeah, thanks for the advice, Shiro. Why don’t you get in and help me?”
“I don’t have the paid version yet. That means no multiplayer, remember?”
“I remember.” He healed, but at the wrong time, leaving him with only one health point left. “Damn. I can’t get his rhythm right.”
Another player stepped into the room, clad in shining silver armour. They charged the boss, taking the next hit that was aimed for Keith. A voice came over his speakers.
“Worry not, fair maiden! I’ll save you!”
Keith’s cheeks flushed as he quickly muted his laptop, hoping against hope that no one had heard its outburst. Unfortunately, some people were laughing behind their hands. He whipped out his headset and whispered furiously into the mic.
“Would you keep it down, you idiot? Not all of us are free to talk so loud. Also, watch out for his back-damn.” He pressed the key to heal the knight.
“Thanks. Hey, why do you play a lady?”
“I dunno. Can’t we have this conversation after the damn boss battle?”
“Alright, fine.”
The line went graciously silent except for a few grunts as the knight took hit after hit, but he was a tank, so Keith was able to heal him up before the next big attack. After maybe ten minutes, the boss died, and the spoils were divided between them.
“Oh, damn. Did he drop an annotated diary?”
“Yeah.”
“Can I have it? I need it for this quest-”
“Why do you think I was here, idiot? Thanks for helping, but I need this. I’d be okay with waiting around until he respawns and helping you get one for yourself. Or, you can just come with me and we’ll turn it in together.”
“Really? Oh, man, that would be awesome. I haven’t been able to keep any team members.”
Keith tried his best not to comment on that. “Alright. Well, I have a teleport spell. What about you?”
A few clicks. “Bummer. Wasted my last one getting here. It recharges in an hour. Did you mind walking until then?”
Keith glanced at the clock on the wall of the library. “Can’t, sorry. Gotta go soon. But if we make it to a safe place like an inn, we should be able to rest there, and I’ll be back home by the time we wake up.”
“Awesome! Alright. Let’s go.”
By the time they got to the inn, Keith was more than fed up with his travelling companion, but he had agreed to accompany him to the end of this quest, and he owed him at least that much, so he just sighed and closed his laptop after checking in.
“Looks like you found someone willing to help.” Shiro offered cheerfully as they packed up.
“Yeah, help rot my brain and make me lose my left hand from sheer boredom. Come on, let’s get to class and hope I never have to talk to that idiot after we’ve finished this quest.”
As it turned out, luck was not on Keith’s side. After getting home and teleporting to the quest-giver, he gave them another destination to take the book to, and so Keith was stuck with the annoying young man chatting his ear off.
“So, I took the crystal to the innkeeper, but it turned out that he was the-hey, isn’t that the place?”
“Yes. Thank god. Come on.”
They made their way into the university, meeting with an NPC who thanked them for the delivery and gave them a stack of gold coins each.
“Nice! Now I can upgrade my – hey, where are you going?”
“As far away from you as I can get, idiot. I’ve done what I said I would do, now leave me alone.”
“No, please, don’t leave me. All my other team mates left me in a dungeon! I had to fight my way out on my own after they’d all teleported out. I didn’t even get the reward!”
“No. Listen, I hate to say it, but I think they left you because you’re annoying.”
“Okay. I can be less annoying. I promise, if you take me with you, I won’t say another word.”
Keith sighed. “Promise?”
“Yes, yes. I promise. Please.”
He groaned and pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. “Alright, fine. Just...stop talking.”
“Absolutely. Understood.”
For a few minutes, it was blessedly silent. They mined some ore together until they fulfilled the requirements to another quest they both had active. The only trouble came when the other young man started humming to himself.
“Can you stop that? Just...fine, talk. Anything has to be better than that awful noise.”
The line went dead for a few seconds and, despite himself, Keith worried he’d dropped dead from shock.
“Hey, I just kinda noticed...we don’t know each other’s names. What do I call you?”
“Call me whatever you damn want, dumbass. I’m not going to tell you my name.”
“Then, egg-face, it is good to make your acquaintance.”
Keith pretended for all of five minutes that it didn’t bother him.
“Keith.”
“What?”
“My name. It’s Keith.”
“Hmm...I like egg-face better. Are you sure you’re not considering a name-change, egg-face?”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Hey! Language! I have nieces and nephews in the room. And I’m just teasing, Keith. I’m Lance.”
Keith sighed, but smiled anyway. “Well, it’s...not exactly a pleasure, Lance. But it is good to know your name.”
“You too.” He sounded different now. Soft, almost. Gentle. Then, the old Lance was back. “So...we have a bunch of quests that don’t overlap. If you need to go away and do whatever, it’ll be cool if I wander off and do my own quests, right?”
“I guess so.” He wanted to ask questions, but he knew that it wasn’t exactly polite, so he just shrugged off his curiosity and kept playing. “Do you have the ‘Death Kitten’ quest? You’re supposed to get really good loot from that one.”
After another few weeks of playing with Lance, Keith realised that he wasn’t so much annoying as lonely. It seemed that his nieces and nephews came around a lot, but he didn’t mention anyone of his own age coming around. He was online almost every single time Keith was. It was getting to the point where Keith couldn’t hold back his curiosity any longer.
“Lance?” He said while they were mining for more ore.
“Uh-oh. That’s not a good sound.”
“Look, I’m sorry if I’m prying, but...why are you always online?”
The other boy sighed. “I...I don’t want to talk about it.”
Keith swallowed. He hoped it wasn’t anything serious. “Okay.” He didn’t bring it up again for another couple of weeks.
Keith thought he was going to burst, he was so curious, but every time he was close to asking, he would hear that sad reply. I don’t want to talk about it.
Then, one day, Lance wasn’t online.
Keith usually logged on just to say hi every morning, then would close it down and make his way through his first classes, then log back on in the library until break was over, repeating the process at lunch. He would then get home, do his homework, log back on for a few minutes before being called down for dinner, then log back in for about an hour until it was time for bed.
His mother had become concerned about addiction until he’d told her about Lance.
“I’m so proud of you for being there for that boy, Keith. You have such a big heart.”
He’d rolled his eyes, but had secretly been singing with the praise.
“Lance? Are you there?”
He told himself not to worry – some days, Lance slept in. It was no big deal.
As soon as lunch rolled around, he raced to the library and logged on as quickly as his fingers would allow. “Come on, come on.”
“Lance? Lance, are you there?”
He sat there, looking at his screen for the remainder of lunch, too worried to actually go on any quests, watching for Lance's username to pop up in his friends box.
At second break, he repeated the process, feeling sick to his stomach.
After school, he was close to an all-out panic. He wished he knew something. Anything would be better than not knowing. His mother, of course, could tell something was wrong, but she just furrowed her brows at him from across the dining table.
“Can I be excused?”
“Keith, you’ve barely touched your food.”
“I’m...I’m not hungry.” It was a lie – he hadn’t even eaten breakfast – but the nausea rose in his stomach at the thought of eating anything.
His mother placed her hand on his father’s arm. “Let him go, Yurak.” She nodded at Keith, who leapt from his chair and logged in.
“Lance?”
“Hi, Keith.”
“Oh my God. I was so worried about-”
“I suppose there’s no more hiding it, is there?” Keith’s breath caught in his throat. Lance sounded so weak. “I’m...I’m sick, Keith. I had to go to the hospital today. They let me spend time at home on good days, but...I’m not able to go outside. They didn’t even think I’d make it to thirteen, let alone fifteen. They wanted to take out...take out...”
“Lance?”
“The tumour. But it was too close to the bone. Couldn’t risk it. It’ll probably kill me. But, Keith, you know, I -” His voice broke. “I had so much fun playing with you.”
“No. No, Lance. Just...tell me where you are. Don’t talk like you’re...you’re not dying. You...you can’t be. Tell me where you are. I’ll come to you.”
“Well, I hope you have enough money to come to Cuba. That’s where I am, Keith. Cuba.”
“No. Lance, I-”
“Don’t worry about it. The best thing you can do for me is to stay where you are and keep playing with me until...”
“No. Lance. Do you...have a phone? I could face-time you. If you don’t...if you don’t have any friends where you are, I’ll...I’ll show you mine.”
“Keith...”
“Please. I want...I don’t want you to be alone.”
“I’m not. I have my family, and...you.”
“Lance...Lance, don’t you dare give up. I...I don’t know how, but I’m going to get to you.”
“Sure, because you can definitely afford a flight to Cuba and back.”
“Who said anything about back?”
“Cuba? Keith...”
“Please, mom. I...he hasn’t got anyone. He needs me.”
Her shoulders sagged. “Baby...Cuba’s a long way away.”
“I know. I just need you to say I can. If you do that...I’ll find a way. Whatever it is.”
“Okay. If you can find a way to go, you can go.”
Hunk’s parents were more than happy to provide the funding for the trip. They insisted that Shiro and Hunk go with him, of course, but he had a way.
“Lance?”
“Hi, Keith. How’s the trip to Cuba coming along?” He laughed, but then broke down into a coughing fit.
“Well, don’t give up just yet, Lance. I have a way to get to you. Just hold on. Hold on until I get there.”
“Keith...don’t. I’m serious. The doctors...they say I have days. I want...I want to be with my family, Keith.”
“But I-”
“Keith, listen to me. Your friendship...it’s meant more than the whole world to me, but that’s why I need you to do this for me. Stay right where you are. Stay there. Please. I know how much you care about me without needing to see your face, to feel you. Besides, I don’t want you to see me like this. Remember me as that knight. Keith, promise me. Promise you’ll stay right where you are.”
“I...Lance...”
“Promise.”
For the first time since hearing about Lance’s sickness, Keith couldn’t hold back the tears. “Lance...”
“Promise.”
“I love you.”
Lance sighed into his microphone. “I love you too, Keith, but you have to promise.”
“I promise.”
Outside the door, Keith’s mother squeezed her eyes shut and opened the door. “Baby.” She took the headset off and cradled him in her arms. “I’m going to cancel that account. I don’t want you to go back on for a few months, okay?”
“But...Lance...”
“Lance told you what he wants, baby. You should allow him time to grieve, allow yourself time to grieve. Allow his family time to grieve.”
“But he’s not dead yet.”
“No. But sometimes, we have to let go of things we really don’t want to.”
SIX MONTHS LATER
Keith blinked at the username on screen. It couldn’t be.
He plugged his headset in and requested a line of communication. It was accepted.
“Lance?” He whispered.
“Sorry? I can’t hear you, egg-face.”
“Lance! Oh my-what...what happened?” He had to stop himself from hugging his computer screen.
“They got it out. I’m still...not really clear to go outside, but I’m doing better. They think, by the time I get to nineteen, I’ll have all the movement and everything of a normal, healthy young man. Of course, that is if everything goes well.”
Tears were streaming down his face in the middle of the school library, but Keith couldn’t bring himself to care. “I’m so happy you’re okay.”
“I’m glad you said that, because all my other team mates leave me, Keith. And...you should really be thanking yourself. If it weren’t for you...before we met, I was ready to die, Keith. You made me want to live.”
Keith was ugly-crying at this point, sobbing. “I love you. I love you so much.”
“I love you too, Keith. And just you wait. I’m going to get to America and see you there.”
CHRISTMAS, THREE YEARS LATER
“He’ll be here any second, mom! I need...did you get the cake out of the oven, Hunk?”
“Yes! And I made a roast chicken, because they were out of turkeys and turkeys aren’t even that delic-”
“Mom? Did you get the napkins? I-”
“Keith, baby, it’s alright. Everything’s going to be okay. I’m sure he’ll love everything as it is.”
His face was split in a perpetual smile. “I know, but...” He was interrupted by the doorbell ringing. “Ohmygod, okay.” He wiped his sweaty palms on his trousers and opened the door…
Only to be swept up by a pair of strong brown arms. He cried out happily. “Lance!” There was no hesitation before he crashed their lips together, his arms wrapping around his neck. “I love you so much.”
“I love you too, Keith.”
He let Keith down, who led him inside and introduced him to his friends and family. Before long, though, they were up in Keith’s room, kissing. Keith was straddling Lance’s waist, kissing him even as he cried.
“I thought you’d be happy.” Lance teased as they broke apart.
“That’s the problem; I’m too happy, Lance.” He sighed and collapsed onto his chest. “I love you so much. I thought...I really thought you’d died, Lance, and I couldn’t breathe. The world...it got darker without you. My world got smaller. Those six months where I didn’t know what had happened to you were the worst of my life.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “Don’t leave me like that again.”
“I won’t. I love you too much.” He wrapped his arms around Keith’s shoulders. “I can’t wait until you meet my family, Keith. You’ll love them all so much. And mama will feed you until you can’t move.”
“I can’t wait.”