Work Text:
[Hey boy, Why you didn’t call me?]
Lance sighed into the musty air inside the bus he was currently riding. It left a small cloud of steam on the window that he was leaning his head against, but he barely noticed. He was too busy thinking about too many things. Again. Always.
[I waited for days. I can’t believe you didn’t call.]
This week in particular was excruciating hell. His science teacher, referred to by his first name: Coran, was making them do individual projects for their finals—insinuating there was too much cheating going on in his class during group work. He had eyed Lance, Hunk and Pidge while speaking and Hunk had to hold Lance back from that one. Lance didn’t cheat. I mean, sure, sometimes he let Pidge and Hunk do most of the work, but they liked it-one, and two, they were smarter than him, and three, he’s tried to help. They won’t let him do anything.
He recalled the last group project he was apart of and how he kept hovering over their shoulders to see what they were doing, asking if he could do something. Anything.
“Food,” Pidge said, not looking up from her computer screen.
“Want to decorate the poster?” Hunk asked, because he was considerate.
Lance sighed and rolled off of his bed to join them on the floor, “I’m using only shades of blue.”
“You only ever use shades of blue.” Pidge scoffed.
“It’s my signature color!”
As he sat on the bus now he wondered, was science going to be that important to him after they graduated any way? He snorted at that thought before groaning and dropping his face into his hands.
[Hey boy, Why you didn’t call me?]
On top of school work, there was his actual job at a business center. Amy was finally fired for being the bitch she was. Lance was impressed that she happened to last as long as she did. She never wanted to help out customers and even when she did (if you could call it that) she was incredibly rude. She would throw their packages behind her, right in front of their faces, and Lance had to scramble to pick them up quickly and apologize on her behalf. There was that one time someone came in and mentioned that their box held something fragile, a Christmas gift they were sending to their terminally ill niece, and Amy got so fed up with hearing about how important and fragile it was that she shook it really hard and then pressed her ear against it, asking what it was. Lance will never forget the shock across the guy’s face.
Amy being fired was nice, but Kayla was now also on maternity leave so there was only him and Pidge working the Business Center these days. Being convention season, it was so packed in there Lance was sure he’d have some kind of anxiety attack. A palette of packages coming in, 50 more going out, and everyone and their mom in need of the scanner/fax machine, yelling at them about the prices Lance couldn’t change even if he wanted to. And trust him, he wanted to. A dollar a page was ridiculous to scan a document that cost them literally nothing to do.
Because of the short staff, him and Pidge were having to stay late to inbound packages and then sort all the mail—which, honestly, would be fine, really, if he wasn’t already stressed about this stupid science project.
[I waited for days. I can’t believe you didn’t call.]
And then, finally, there was Keith. Lance argued with himself that this wasn’t the root of all of his problems. A boy, that clearly wasn’t interested in him, was NOT the cause of all the stress. He’s been let down before. He’s flirted and had conversations and nothing came of them before. This was nothing new.
And yet, somehow it was.
Somehow this was completely different.
Lance bit his lip and readjusted his headphones.
[Hey boy, Why you didn’t call me?]
So, maybe there was this guy, right? Keith? That he’d seen around school sometimes (all the time). He was not looking for him at all. Keith was just... there? So, any way, maybe there was this guy that had that hot, mysterious thing going on... I mean, Lance wasn’t into it at all. Lance thought it was stupid. Keith is stupid.
Don’t even get Lance started on how good at literally everything this guy was. Lance’s internal nickname for him had been Midas since everything he touched turned into gold. He secretly wished it would all bite Keith in the ass similarly to the old mythology.
But then Lotor threw that house party.
And he, like, talked to Keith.
[I waited for days. I can’t believe you didn’t call.]
That’s where everything started going wrong for him really, at that party. He never should have gone (like Pidge had said not to) but when he had heard Allura was going to it he really didn’t feel like he had a choice (he should listen to Pidge more).
It’s not that he had a crush on Allura any more, because he didn’t, and besides—her and Lotor kind of had this ‘thing’ going on between them... but that didn’t mean he didn’t want to be there for his friend. She had a knack for getting herself into trouble and sue him for not really trusting the Galra Tech kids around Altean High’s voted Princess Allura, Lotor included.
Keith had shown up, because of course he did, even though he was home-schooled. How the guy knew all the popular kids without even going to either schools straight up baffled Lance. Lance had spent all of his freshman and sophomore years trying to get noticed by his idol, Takeshi Shirogane (aka Shiro). Shiro was quarterback to their high school’s football team, The Altean Lions. Lance wasn’t above begging to be put on the team if he needed to, but fortunately with all the training he had done over the summer with Hunk, him and his best friend were able to make the team this year.
So yeah, add football to his list of stress. Right above the stupid science project, and his stupid job (that he worked at part time to help out his large family). He was probably way over his head, but Lance is nothing if not adaptable and maybe a tad of an over-achiever on certain things.
Keith though. Home-schooled Keith. Younger-brother-to-the-Shiro Keith, who has come out to casual football practice with them more than once and not only is he clearly a natural and much better than Lance, but Keith shoulder checked him hard the first time they played. Some (everyone) would say it was an accident because neither of them had been paying attention when they ran for the ball at the same time, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that when Lance asked him what his problem was, Keith started yelling back about Lance’s problems, yadda yadda, it was a whole thing. Long story short, they were then rivals, obviously.
Any way, there Keith was at the party. Hanging around with his Marmora Club crew—some after school martial arts thing or whatever at Galra Tech. Lance didn’t know what they did, only that they all had this weird thing about knives. They were nicknamed The Blades.
He and Lance ended up talking for some reason.
The reason might be because Keith looked really uncomfortable being there when Shiro had wandered off. The reason might be because Lance wanted to tease him about looking uncomfortable—but! not tease him, you know like, in a cute way. No, no, tease him in like a gloat-y way, but not gloat because, like there wasn’t... anything to gloat about. You know what he means. Moving on.
So they’re talking, right? And it’s good. Weirdly good. Keith is... good, maybe. He’s nice. He’s actually funny. He proved himself thoughtful when they talked their way into the kitchen and Keith had poured whatever alcoholic concoction they’d had there into Lance’s nearly empty cup in the middle of talking, un-phased like it was a distant thought or second nature. Lance didn’t even know he had been running low.
[And we sat
Outside for an hour at the party and talked]
Lance couldn’t deny that his heart strings were pulled whenever he was able to make Keith smile, double the points if he got him to laugh.
He went on a limb at the end of the night to write down his number on a napkin and shove it into Keith’s hand before he’d left the party.
[I thought that something good could be starting]
But that was like, a week ago! What the hell.
[It’s not a lot that I want just some talking
Really you just injured my pride]
Lance understands the whole phone number protocol thing. That whole anxiety over who texts who first, and when, but Lance is impatient and he was too busy trying to leave with some semblance of cool that he had left without getting Keith’s number in return. Call him overly confident, but he really thought what was happening between them was mutual.
And it’s not like he can search him out at school or anything. Keith didn’t go there. Asking Shiro would be way too embarrassing. How would he even go about that?
“Hey, Shiro, my man, buddy, pal. Is your brother, who we all thought I hated—me included—ghosting me? Cuz maybe I don’t actually hate him at all. Maybe I’ve had this big fat crush on him this whole time and everyone was right: I’m an idiot.” Lance mumbled aloud to himself, gazing lazily outside of the bus window as it slowed down at a stop light.
[Hey boy, Why you didn’t call me?]
Lance watches, frustrated, as a glass door to some store swings open. Keith exits with a paper bag hanging from his arm, looking down at his cell phone.
[I waited for days. I can’t believe you didn’t call]
“Stop!” Lance yells, as the bus begins to roll forward. It jerks to a stop as he jumps to his feet, grabbing his things and practically runs for the door. “I need to get off! It’s an emergency!”
The bus driver grumbles but opens up.
“Hey! Keith! Asshole!” Lance calls as soon as he steps foot on the ground. Keith visibly jolts at the sound of his name, looking exactly like a deer caught in head lights. Lance forces down the laugh he can feel at the cute sight.
[Susan said that maybe you’re scared
Shelly says there always is a reason]
“L-Lance...?” Keith mumbles with an expression on his face that clearly says he’d rather be any where but here.
“Oh, so you do remember me? I thought you might have forgotten since you never bothered to text me.” Lance gestures to Keith’s phone. “By the way, it’s really lame to keep all the plastic on it. Knowing how reckless you are, you should just get a case.”
[And Chris said you’re probably surrounded by girls
And I’m just not one of them that you’re needing]
Keith looks down at his phone, practically glowing red from embarrassment under the dimly lit street lamp. It’d be kind of creepy if Lance wasn’t fuming, which now that he was face-to-face with Keith was quickly turning into just plain insecurity.
“I thought we had something going at Lotor’s party... did I read that whole situation wrong?” Lance deflated, starting to feel uncomfortable himself.
“No! No. We did. I thought so too. Definitely.” Keith reassured immediately, taking a step towards Lance.
“Then why haven’t you tried to reach out or anything? Or even come by the school like usual? I feel like you’re avoiding me.” Blue eyes looked down, weirdly shy all of a sudden. He rubbed at his arm absentmindedly.
Keith groaned slightly before spitting out, “Idonthaveaphone.”
Lance looked up, “umm, run that by me one more time?”
Keith groaned again, more heavily, “I don’t have a phone...”
Lance looked down at Keith’s hands, “You’re a terrible liar, dude. I’m literally looking right at it.”
“No-Lanc-ugh, here.” Keith shoves the paper bag at Lance. He takes it and peers inside. It’s a box for a new phone.
“I don’t get it. Did you break your phone or something? Is that why you didn’t call me?”
“I’ve never had a phone. I’ve never wanted a phone. They rot your brain you know. I watched a whole documentary about it. You should watch it.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s a conspiracy theory, but—wait, what? Never?”
Keith shook his head. “I didn’t want to tell you because things were going well... We finally weren’t fighting about something. And then, you gave me your number... and I didn’t really know what to do. What if you thought I was weird cuz I didn’t have one? I don’t know, but, I wanted to keep talking to you... so I picked up a couple of shifts at work and I bought one.” Keith lifts the screen to show Lance what he had been doing before Lance found him, “I was literally about to text you.”
Lance blinks at the screen, reading his name at the top and the unfinished “hey” at the bottom. He blinks at Keith, “...you bought a phone for me?”
Keith blushes, pulling his hand back to himself and pointedly looking away. “Yeah, well... I mean, Shiro had been saying I needed to get one for a while because he was leaving for college this summer-”
“But you got one to talk to me?” Lance interrupted.
“Y-yes.” Keith tried to shrug nonchalantly, taking the bag back from Lance.
“Am I your first text?” Lance looked serious now. Keith looked scared.
“Y-yes? You’re literally my only contact right now.”
A moment of silence stretched between them, Keith shuffled his weight between feet in nervousness.
“...Lance?”
“Can I kiss you now?”
“Wh—yes. Absolutely.”