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“Lance, I need your help!”
“Keith?” Lance groaned, sitting up. He shivered as the warm sanctuary of his blankets gave way to cold air. Slowly, his eyes found his alarm clock. The bright digits read 6 am. “Keith, wha-?” he began.
“Just get over here!”
Keith’s tone hit him like a bucket of ice water. There was no mistaking the panic in his voice. “Keith, what’s wrong?” Lance asked, already up and racing over to his closet to find a pair of jeans.
“No, stop, stop,” Keith muttered, though judging by how muffled his voice was it seemed he wasn’t talking to Lance. When he next spoke his voice came through loud and clear. “Just get here, please!” The line went dead.
With mounting panic, Lance threw on some pants, shoved his feet halfway into his sneakers, snatched his keys, and hobbled down to his car as fast as he could. He was at Keith’s apartment in record time, breaking more than a few speeding laws and narrowly avoiding landing on his face when he tripped on his way up the stairs. Needless to say, one shoe was sacrificed on that step as he finally reached Keith’s door, banging on it frantically.
“Keith?” he called, a hint of hysteria in his voice. He heard a muffled call from the other side that sounded like the words ‘come in.’ Without wasting another second, he burst through the door and into Keith’s living room. His eyes immediately fell on the man himself, sitting like a statue on the coach and staring up at Lance with panicked eyes.
“Help me,” Keith whispered.
Lance was just about to ask what was wrong when something shifted in Keith’s lap. His eyes shot down to find a small gray cat, stretching out a paw lazily before relaxing once more, it’s chest rising and falling with a rumbling purr. Lance stared at the cat. Then at Keith. Then the cat. Then Keith. Suddenly he burst out laughing, collapsing down onto the sofa next to his disgruntled and still visibly panicking friend.
“What’s so funny?” Keith snapped, still wearing the expression of a man being held at knife point.
“Is this your urgent crisis?” Lance managed to gasp around his laughter. “A little kitty?”
“I don’t own a cat, Lance!”
“I know, but with the way you were talking I thought the world was about to end!”
“What am I supposed to do with it?” Keith asked. He didn’t seem to have calmed in the least. “How did it get in? I just woke up this morning and it was laying on my bed!”
Lance snickered. “A cat likes you. How horrible.”
“I’m serious, Lance! I’ve never had a pet before.”
“Oh, so it’s your pet now?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You implied it.”
Keith fixed Lance with a glare. “What if it has owners already? Or what if it doesn’t? I can’t just kick it out on the street.”
“Absolutely,” Lance nodded with mock seriousness. “Once a cat has adopted you, you’re stuck with it forever.”
Keith glanced down at the cat in his lap like it was a ticking time bomb. He took in a breath before speaking next, his voice coming out small. “But what do I do?”
Lance frowned, reaching out to place a hand on Keith’s shoulder. “Hey, buddy, it’s okay. I grew up on a farm, remember? I’m practically a certified animal whisperer!” Keith snorted, and Lance smiled in relief as he felt some of the tension ease from the other boy’s shoulders. “Plus, if you really don’t want it then we can always take it to a shelter. That way, someone else can still adopt it.”
“But what if someone already owns it?”
Lance glanced back down at the cat, noticing the lack of a collar. He also noticed the way it was nuzzling into Keith’s elbow, it’s eyes closed in contentment. He reached out to scratch under the cat’s chin, unable to resist the urge to coo at it slightly when it leaned into his touch, purring louder. When he glanced back up he found Keith watching him with a strange, soft look in his eyes. Then Keith’s eyes widened and he immediately look away, face turning red. Lance felt his own cheeks heat up as he cleared his throat.
“Um, well… There’s no collar so we should take it into the shelter to get it checked for a microchip. And we should keep our eyes open for missing cat posters around town so we can contact the owners to let them know.”
Keith nodded, looking down at the cat. He seemed slightly less alarmed by its presence. “So, do we just put it in the trunk, or-?”
“Keith!” Lance exclaimed. “It’s not a piece of luggage!”
“I told you, I’ve never had pets before!”
“The trunk,” Lance muttered. “That’s no way to treat a lady!”
Keith quirked a brow at him. Lance would never admit it in a million years but every time Keith did that it made his heart go a mile a minute. “How do you know it’s a girl?” Keith asked, interrupting Lance’s own little crisis.
Lance shook his head to clear it, giving his friend a smirk. “Animal whisperer, remember?”
Keith rolled his eyes, but he gave Lance a fond smile. “Whatever.”
Lance stared at that smile on his lips a little longer than was strictly necessary, but the moment Keith glanced back towards him he pretended to be preoccupied with petting their uninvited guest.
“Normally we would take a cat in a pet carrier,” he spoke up. “But I’m assuming you don’t have one, so you’ll need to hold her on your lap while I drive.”
“What?” Keith exclaimed, the panic back full-force. “Why me?”
“Because, mister afraid-of-a-tiny-kitty, your car is still in the shop, so I’m the only ride you’ve got.”
“I’m not afraid of the cat,” Keith grumbled.
Lance grinned, patting Keith’s knee teasingly. “Whatever you say, hotshot. Now, come on.”
Lance stood up. However, for a moment, Keith didn’t move. His eyes darted from the cat to Lance several times. He opened his mouth as if he was about to ask something before shutting it abruptly, a look of determination on his face. He slipped his hands under the cat’s front legs, standing up and lifting the animal with him. To the cat’s credit, it just let itself hang there like a pendulum, it’s purrs never ceasing for a moment.
Lance simply sighed, taking the cat and readjusting it in Keith’s arms so that it was propped against Keith’s shoulder with it’s back legs held in the other boy’s hands. “You’ve got to support her legs, you dor…” Lance trailed off when his eyes met Keith’s. He had stepped in a lot closer than he realized, Keith’s face now mere inches away. The other boy’s cheeks were tinted pink, eyes wide as he stared back at Lance. His eyes looked like galaxies, every bit of light seeming to shine in them like tiny stars, and if Lance just leaned a little closer, he could-
Lance stepped back with an awkward cough, reaching up to rub at the back of his neck. “So, um. We better get going.” He threw in a halfhearted gesture towards the door. Keith nodded, not quite meeting his eyes as he passed him.
The cat purred like a tiny, fuzzy motor boat the whole way to the animal shelter, the sound occasionally joined by Lance’s cooing and Keith’s teasing remarks. Once at the shelter they explained the situation to a staff member, who took the cat into the back room to check for a microchip. Lance and Keith sat on a bench in the lobby with a good, healthy distance of a foot between them.
After a bit of silence, Lance finally spoke up. “So, if the cat doesn’t have an owner, what are you going to do?”
Keith’s brows furrowed. “I don’t know.”
“I would totally take her myself, but my apartment doesn’t allow pets.”
Keith snorted softly to himself.
“What’s so funny?” Lance asked, quirking a brow.
Keith shot him a teasing look. “I’ve seen the pics of you dressing up your parent’s dogs in ridiculous outfits. You’d torture that poor cat.”
Lance gasped dramatically. “How dare you? I’ll let you know Sir Ruffles and Pompom are the most fashionable dogs on the block and they love every second of it! That kitty would be a fashionista queen under my guidance!”
“Still don’t know if it’s a girl,” Keith said, a sparkle of amusement in his eye.
“Keith, which one of us has had pets before? I was practically raised in a wolf pack.”
“Your labradoodle is not a wolf.”
“How dare you insult Pompom’s noble heritage!”
“Excuse me, gentlemen,” a voice interrupted. The two straightened up, finding the staff member from earlier as she held the cat in her arms. The little creature let out a soft mewing sound when it spotted Keith, wriggling around slightly. “We’ve checked and it appears he does not have a chip.”
“He?” Keith asked.
“Yes,” the technician nodded. “He’s a young male.”
Lance glanced over to find Keith already looking at him, the biggest shit-eating grin on his face. “Not a word, mullet,” he grumbled.
“Not even a whisper?” Keith asked, grin growing even wider.
“Shut it.”
“An animal whisper?”
“Yes, I got the joke,” Lance muttered. He glanced back up to find the technician watching them with a sort of amused confusion. He cleared his throat before speaking. “What’s the next step?”
“Well,” she started, “we’ll get him set up here and post a profile of him online. It’s mandatory to-”
Before she finished, the cat finally succeeded in it’s squirming and managed to wiggle from her arms, landing right in Keith’s lap. Instantly the purring started back up, the cat rubbing against him as Keith stared down at it with big eyes.
“Actually,” he spoke, voice quiet. “I’m going to keep him.”
Back at Keith’s apartment, Lance watched with a warm feeling in his chest as Keith’s hands stroked gently down the cat’s fur, the little creature napping on his lap. “What are you going to name him?” he asked.
“Blue,” Keith replied without any hesitation.
“Why Blue?”
Keith glanced away, face heating up. “It’s just a nice color.”
Lance hummed in response, scratching behind Blue’s ears. “Well, not that this cat crisis hasn’t been fun and all, but this is a Saturday and I need my beauty sleep to keep looking this fine.” He stood, giving Keith a playful grin as he waited for the other boy’s retort. Instead Keith’s eyes widened and he stood up quickly, though Lance noticed he took care to hold Blue correctly this time.
“Wait!” Keith exclaimed. Lance paused, watching with confusion as Keith failed to meet his eyes, the other boy’s face turning crimson. Before he could ask what was wrong, Keith surged forward. Lance’s eyes widened, thinking for a moment Keith was about to kiss him, watching those soft lips get closer to his own. But then they passed him, landing instead on his cheek, in the lightest, gentlest kiss he’d ever felt. Lance froze, staring dumbfounded as Keith leaned back, still unable to meet his gaze. “I just wanted to say thank you. For helping me today.”
“Yeah, no problem, buddy.” Lance’s voice came out as more of a squeak, though he would never admit it. For a long while, neither of them moved. As the seconds dragged on, Lance warred with himself. That was a sign, right? Maybe he should take a chance and just kiss Keith like he’d been dreaming about for ages. But what if it was just a bro cheek-kiss? Just some platonic intimacy between best buds. But then why was Keith blushing?
Keith took a hesitant step back, and before another thought could enter his head, Lance surged forward. He closed his eyes too soon and landed more on the corner of Keith’s mouth, but those were Keith’s lips against his and they felt so soft and warm and giving. Slowly he leaned back, letting his eyes open. Keith was staring at him with a shocked expression, frozen in place. Just like that, Lance’s mind immediately kicked into panic mode and he started desperately scrambling for a way to salvage the situation.
“Sorry, I thought- I mean, I shouldn’t have-”
Before another word could leave his mouth, Keith’s hand fisted in his shirt and Lance was yanked forward. Their noses banged together and they both winced in pain as Keith breathed, “Sorry,” against his lips. Then they were kissing, lips moving slow and delicate before pressing firmer, seeking more. Lance reached up, cradling Keith’s face in his hands, drawing him closer and closer as he lost himself in the feeling of Keith’s touch, Keith’s lips on his, Keith’s-
A loud meow made the two of them jump, pulling apart to find a rather annoyed cat squashed between them. “Sorry, kitty,” Lance said, leaning down to press a kiss to Blue’s soft little forehead, “but it looks like you’ve got some competition now.”
Keith huffed out a laugh, giving Lance a look so fond it made his heart melt. “You’re such a dork.”
Lance gave him a sappy smile. “But I’m your dork.”
Keith leaned in and kissed him soft and slow, pulling away just enough to whisper, “Yeah. My dork.”