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Fucking Beautiful, is what Lance McClain thought to himself as Keith Kogane passed his lunch table, holding only a popsicle and a milk carton.
“Lance!” Hunk yelled, pulling him out of his daze, “Man, are you staring at him again?” he asked accusingly.
“What? Dude, no. I have no reason to be staring at him,” Lance answers, crossing his arms and squeezing his eyes shut.
“Yeah, except that you’re obsessed with him, of course, ” Pidge said snickering to herself, not once looking away from her laptop.
“I’m not obsessed with him!” Lance argued, “I just think he’s very, very nice looking,” he finished, almost whispering at the end.
“Lance,” Hunk started, “you know you can’t get involved with him.”
Lance spoke up before Hunk got the chance to recite his, No Keith Kogane: And Here’s Why, list, “I know, Hunk. I am well aware, trust me.”
Though he hates to admit it, Hunk did have good, strong reasons. Lance knew each of these reasons by heart, seeing as he would always go over them in his head whenever he felt himself being pulled in by the completely unaware Keith Koagne.
These reasons included, but are not limited to: he gets in fights way too often, and he starts at least sixty percent of them; he has an attitude, everyone knows this; resting bitch face, which Hunk says isn’t a good sign, but Lance begs to differ bec ause, to put it short, Pidge. Along with these reasons, there are Famous Hunk Quotes such as, he’s the typical bad guy, Lance! He’ll just break your heart as any other bad guy would, and he will not be around to pick up the pieces ! Along with, does he even really know who you are? What if he tries to fight you?
While yes, even Lance sometimes thinks Hunk is overreacting, he knows his friend is just worried about him, and not for no reason at that, so Lance lets it slide. Though, those reasons never hold him back. So instead he comes up with little icks he has when it comes to Keith,
One of his icks was simply Keith Kogane’s mullet — although that wasn’t really a reason because he can pull off that horrendous haircut better than anyone he’s ever met — and when he can’t help but stare at him, he thinks about Keith giving their child a mullet as a haircut, and sending them off to school.
Lance would die before he let that happen.
Still, every time Lance was staring at Keith Kogane, his mind was screaming, look my way, look my way! Yet even after that, he still has the nerve to tell himself he most definitely isn’t in love with Keith.
Though one-day, things changed.
“Hunk! Hunk! I talked to him! I finally talked to him!” Lance called out, waving his hands in the air excitedly as he ran towards his friend.
“Talked to who?” Hunk asked, “Your professor? Oh, please say it’s your professor, you need all the help you can get.”
“No, Hunk! Keith! Keith Kogane!” Lance announced, “And he talked back! He talked back!”
“ You what? ” Hunk asked, eyes quickly showing worry, along with anger, “Lance! We have talked about this countless times! What were you thinking? Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”
“Of course I’m not hurt, Hunk! He’s not as bad as you think, I swear,” Lance calmed him down, “Listen to this, I dropped my books in the hall, and he picked them up. He even called me cute!”
“Oh, Lance,” Hunk sighed, grasping what was happening.
Lance McClain was falling for him, and that was only if he hadn’t already.
“Hunk, it’s okay buddy. I’ve got this. Maybe something good will happen! Just trust me!” Lance pleaded, because deep down he knew he absolutely needed his best friends’ approval.
Hunk bit his cheek and narrowed his eyes before sighing once again, “Okay, Lance, you’ve got my vote, I’ll see you later at the pizza place?” Hunk asked, turning around to start the walk to his car.
Lance was gleaming with joy, “Yeah!”
Later on, Lance walked into the pizza place he went to every day after school. To his right, there was Hunk, Pidge, and Matt — who isn’t in high school, but college, and is Pidge’s older brother —
“What’s up, bruv ?” Matt yelled over to Lance as he walked in.
“Please stop,” Pidge said to Matt with a serious face, even looking up from her phone.
As Lance sat down next to Hunk and Matt clapped his hands together, obviously remembering something, “I invited some friends today. Shiro, Shiro’s side piece, and possibly Shiro’s little brother,” Matt announced, taking a sip of his drink.
“What the fuck, this is Pepsi, I asked for Coke, and not the fun kind,” Matt whined, “Pidge, did you tell them Pepsi was okay when I went to the bathroom? Pepsi is never okay!”
Pidge slowly turned her head to face him, “You got a death wish?”
Two men then walked in, hand in hand, and trailing behind them was no other than Keith Kogane.
The group made room in the booth, Shiro and Adam, who walked in hand in hand, were now sitting next to each other on one end, and Keith sat on the other, next to Lance.
Pidge smirked and looked at Matt, “Hey, Adam, Matt called you Shiro’s side piece,” Pidge gave Matt a sarcastic smile, then continuing to stare at him as she sipped her drink, “Oh, this is Coke,” she bragged, watching Matt’s face fall.
As Adam then argued playfully with Matt, Lance got lost in his thoughts. Keith Kogane, he thought, I am sitting next to Keith Kogane.
“Lance,” He said to Keith, offering a smile.
“Keith,” was all the other said, only glancing at Lance once.
It started off slow, but soon the two were talking a lot. At the end of the get-together, Lance and Keith exchanged phone numbers, and after that, they became close. They texted a lot, and some of the texts even involved slight flirting.
Then one day, Keith walked up to Lance while he was at his locker, and kissed him, and Lance kissed back, even while surprised, Lance kissed back .
They could already hear everyone around them, whispering, about them.
Whispers such as, a re they dating? Or, s eriously? Kogane picks that one? He’s a nobody!
There were mixed opinions, though. While some said things like that, others said things like how romantic, or, they make a cute couple.
Even so, there was one that stuck with Lance. One meaningless whisper that shouldn’t mean jack shit to him, since he was being kissed by Keith.
Someone whispered, It doesn’t matter, they’re both boys.
The kiss ended just as soon as it started, and Keith smiled at him.
“Class,” Keith told him and walked away.
Lance was stunned, and everyone was looking at him. Or, it felt like everyone was staring at him, and he felt exposed, naked. He felt like they all knew every last thing about him, and they all were ready to criticize him about any of it.; he felt like he was about to break.
It doesn’t matter, they’re both boys, repeated in his head, over and over
It doesn’t matter, they’re both boys.
It doesn’t matter, they’re both boys.
It doesn’t matter, they’re both boys.
In the last few months, Lance had come to terms with his sexuality. He had decided that he was bisexual. Hunk had supported him, and so did Pidge, and Matt, and all his siblings, but not his parents; his parents were still having trouble with it.
His dad had shouted at him when he told them, and Lance felt like his eardrums were going to burst at any moment. He sort of wished they had, too. He hated having to listen to his dad go on and on about how, you’ve always liked girls, only girls, or, it’s got to be a phase, tell me it’s a phase! On the other hand, his mom was quiet, only saying things like, are we not giving you enough attention? Once his dad had calmed down.
Lance cried that day, a lot. He ran upstairs and cried, and a few minutes later, Rebecca walked in his room, saying nothing as she climbed into his bed with him, holding him tightly. That only made him cry even harder, and by then he was sobbing. He was a mess, and he held onto Rebecca as if his life had depended on it; he kind of felt like it did.
The next morning, everyone acted as if it never happened., but when the matter was brought up, his parents would finch, or even wince, treating it like an embarrassing mishap at a family gathering.
Still, they were working on it, he knew they were, he understood that they were, but it still hurt.
Now he was experiencing it all over again, with people he didn’t even know. He fell prey to the whispers, and they just kept coming. They followed him everywhere, and Lance didn’t know what to do. His skin was crawling, he felt like a shaken-up soda bottle about to be opened, and so he ran; but not alone.
When all his classes were over, he stood in the parking lot, waiting for Keith, and when he spotted him, he pulled on his arm, whispering, “I have to go, we have to go.”
“Where to?” Keith asked, urgently starting his motorcycle and getting Lance ready to ride it.
“Anywhere, please,” Lance answered.
Keith drove as fast as he could and Lance guessed they were going to Keith’s house. It didn’t matter to him where they went, he just needed to get away from everybody — from everybody talking, all they did was talk — and he was relieved that Keith was there to fulfill his wish.
When Lance arrived at Keith’s house, they walked to his room, both of them ignoring Shiro when he yelled a quick, “Hey!”
They sat on his bed, and Keith began questioning him. Asking, what happened back there? Are you okay? As he put his hands on Lance’s shoulders. Lance met his eyes and he considered saying, nothing much, I’m fine! He didn’t, though.
“Everybody is talking about us,” Lance started, “about me, since we kissed, and it's overwhelming, I’m sorry,” Lance apologized, even though he didn’t quite know what he was apologizing for. He just felt he was annoying Keith with his trivial problems.
“You don’t have to apologize,” Keith reassured him, “Lance, let them talk. I really like you, and I don’t want to mess this up,” he admitted, completely genuine as he looked right into Lance’s eyes.
“I really like you too,” Lance replied, a soft smile taking over his face.
He did like Keith, he really, really, liked Keith, but he just couldn’t get the whispers out of his head.
They kissed again, and then Lance said he was tired. So they took a nap, and Lance didn’t go to the pizza place that day. When he woke up, Keith drove him home.
The next day at school, they kissed again. Lance liked kissing Keith, he loved it, but the whispers kept coming. They kept coming as if the people thought it was the only thing worthy of their time. It was tearing Lance apart, and to be honest, Lance was embarrassed to even admit something like that. Who lets a few people talking about them tear them apart?
So at the end of the day, Lance said to Keith, I can’t do this anymore, and when Keith asked why , Lance only avoided his eyes and whispered, I’m sorry . Keith didn’t go after him, he only stood in the school parking lot, watching Lance get into his car and drive away as Keith continued to stand there, hurt and confused.
Lance never thought that he would let everyone’s words get in the way, but he did. He did and while he regretted it, he didn’t think he could go back to Keith and change his mind, because it would take months before people murmuring about them finally died down, and Lance couldn’t handle months,
When he told Hunk what happened, Hunk replied with, oh, Lance, and held him tightly as he cried again.
A few days passed, and then a few weeks. The talking behind his back had almost completely died down, and Lance tried to pretend none of it ever happened, but every time — every single time — he looked at Keith and saw how hurt he looked, his heart broke.
He was in love with Keith, he really was, and he thought it was all over; Keith and him, but one day, Keith texted him during class.
Keith Kogane
Come to your locker, I need to tell you something important.
So Lance asked to use the bathroom, and there Keith was, he looked broken.
“What is it?” he asked Keith, trying to act normal.
“Lance, I’m in love with you,” Keith confessed, his mouth turned into a frown and his eyebrows deeply furrowed. When Lance started to speak, Keith cut him off, “I’m in love with every part of you, McClain, and I was so happy that I finally worked up the courage to kiss you. You kissed back, Lance, you kissed me back! So what did I do wrong? Please, Lance, what did I do wrong?” Keith asked, pleading with his eyes for an answer.
Lance shook his head, “Nothing, you did nothing wrong.”
“Then why?” Keith asked softly.
“Everyone, Keith, Everyone is talking about us, whispering about us, saying mean things, and I couldn’t handle it,” Lance bit his lip, forgetting that they were in a school hallway as he fought to hold in tears,
Keith took a step towards him, “Let them talk, or whisper, or yell, Lance. Let everybody talk, because trust me, no one will ever be able to do anything to you when I’m around.” Keith promised, giving Lance a small smile, as he placed his hands on Lance’s face.
Let them talk? Let them all talk about me? About us?
Lance met Keith’s eyes.
Yeah, let them talk.
Lance took Keith’s face in his hands and kissed him.