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It was Lance’s birthday. His favourite day of the year. Presents, family and friends - his favourite things, not forgetting attention and a lot of it.
18 was a big number or so his mother said. She insisted on throwing him a huge party at their house inviting all of his friends and most of his extended family. Lance couldn’t wait, the only thing that could make this better was if Keith could come. Keith was his boyfriend, had been for about 6 months, but no one besides their friends knew about it, his family didn’t even know Keith existed apart from his older sister Veronica, they had always been really close. Lance just didn’t know how any of the others in his family would react. None of them even knew he was bi, and he wasn’t sure he wanted them to.
“Lance can you come and help me” He mom asked pulling him out of his daydream
“Yeah, sure mama” He said walking into the kitchen to where she was. She gestured to the plates on the countertops and he picked them up taking them into the other room where all the other food had been laid out.
There were blue balloons and banners lining the walls. He had a blue cake at the back of the table and even though it was a three tier cake he still had no idea how it would feed all of his cousins, aunts, uncles, parents, siblings, grandparents and friends.
Everything was decorated in blue - Lance’s favourite colour apart from one balloon it was the biggest and made of foil, it said “Happy 18th” on it. Lance had insisted that that balloon be red. Red was Keith’s favourite colour and if he couldn’t have the real Keith at his party then he wanted to have something that reminded of him, like he was there in spirit. Obviously his mom had objected.
“Lance,everything else is blue, why are you getting a red one, it doesn’t match anything else.”
“Because I want it to be different, mama. I want it to stand out.” She just rolled her eyes at her son and reluctantly agreed to buy it.
“Do you think the cake is big enough?” He asked when he returned to the kitchen
“I don’t know, but we don’t have time for another one now, so it will have to be. Can you go make sure your sister is ready, she was complaining about her hair earlier, maybe you could help” His mom said
“Yeah sure”
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“Ronnie! Are you ready yet?” Lance asked entering his older sisters room
“Almost, I just need to straighten the back of my hair” She said as she was trying and failing to do so
“Give it here” He said taking the straighteners out of her hands and into his own. As a child Lance had always helped Veronica with her hair so this was a normal thing.
“You don’t look too excited” She said, looking at his almost sad face behind her through her vanity..
“Well I’m just a bit sad that someone wasn’t able to come tonight”
“I thought you said everyone you asked was coming?” She said confused
“They are” He said “And, your hair is done” She turned around to face him
“Who’s not coming?”
“Keith”
“Aww Lance, I’m sorry”
“People are arriving! Hurry up and be downstairs” Their mom shouted Veronica rubbed his upper arm, stood up and walked down the stairs.
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People started to arrive and music was playing loudly, his present piled up and his arms were tired from greeting people.
“Hey buddy” Hunk said walking through the door, Pidge and Allura in tow
“Hey” Pidge said
“Hello, Lance” said Allura
“Hi, guys, sit anywhere you like, but I advise you to stay away from them” Lance warned pointing to a group of three guys around their age.
“Why?” Allura asked
“They’re my cousins. If it were up to me they wouldn’t be here. Complete assholes. If you want to actually have any fun, just ignore them, especially you Allura. They’re gonna annoy you most cause that’s just the fuckboi’s they are”
“Noted” She said nodding her head and taking a seat on a chair next to the sofa where Pidge and Hunk had began sitting and talking on.
“Present’s time” Lance’s mom shouted to gain everyone’s attention.
This was the one part of his birthday he hated every year. Sure he loved having everyone looking at him but he hated having to act excited about shitty presents. Of course he was grateful for everything everyone got him it just the presents were always so generic and it made him think about how much his family really didn’t know him. There were lots of socks, deodorant and sweets from his family. Hunk had gotten him some art pencils, Allura; a sketch pad and Pidge had made him a moving picture frame. “Thanks guys, I love them.''
Food and drink was handed out and people were laughing while eating and talking.
“So Allura, was it?” Allura nodded her head “When did you and my nephew start dating?” His aunt asked. She was the kind of relative that as so interested in everyone else’s love life to make up for her lack of one. She had a typical ‘Can I talk to the manager?’ haircut and unsurprisingly was the mother of the three asshole cousins.
“Oh, we’re not dating” Allura said. His aunt just raised her eyebrow and smirked at them
“Come on, you can tell me” She said “I can keep a secret”
“Really, we’re not dating” Allura insisted elbowing Lance to have him back her up but he was busy looking at his phone which had pinged from his pocket during the conversation.
’I’m outside I’ve got your present’ It was from Keith.
“Excuse me” Lance said exiting the conversation he was currently in and walking through the kitchen out the back door.
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Lance’s mom watched him excuse himself from the conversation and walk out towards the kitchen. She couldn’t think why he would go in there, but she did know he had been acting strange lately, so like any concerned, slightly nosey mother, she followed him. However he wasn’t in the kitchen when she got there, she looked out the window and was confused. There stood a boy with raven black hair and purple eyes. Lance was standing in front of him a huge smile on his face, if she was being honest it was the happiest she had seen him in a while. So she decided to listen in:
“Hey” The Raven haired boy said smiling at Lance and hugging him
“Hi” Lance replied hugging him back “I wish you were in there”
“Well I’m out here for a bit. Anyway I’ve got your present” The other boy brought out a small box from his pocket
“What is it?” Lance asked
“You know how you said you like my ring and you’re always playing with it on my thumb” He said, Lance nodded his head. “Well I got you your own”
He opened the box and there was a small ring inside. It was identical to the one on his thumb apart from it was silver instead of black.
“Aww, I love it thank you” Lance said quickly pecking him on the lips
“No problem”He took the ring out of the box and place it onto Lance’s finger.
“Wait does it say 1.16.19 on the inside?” Lance asked
“Yeah, the best day of my life, the day we started dating” The purpled eyed boy replied. Lance just captured his lips in a slow, passionate kiss
“Mine too” he said as their foreheads remained pressed together.
“Anyway, you should get back to your party. I don’t want you missing it because of me and Shiro’s waiting out front” The other boy said
“I probably should, people will wonder where I’ve gone” Lance said quietly and a lot less excitedly than the rest of their conversation, face now looking towards the floor.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?” He said, Lance just nodded his head, a sad look on his face.”Chin up beautiful” He said placing two fingers under Lance’s chin and gently pushing it upwards.
That caused a small smile to appear on Lance’s lips before he quickly kissed them once again and began to walk away.
Lance turned around and walked back inside through the kitchen door. His mother stood there and was looking at him as he entered.
“You know, if you want him here, you should go after him” She said a smile on her face
“Huh?” Lance asked. He hadn’t been aware of anyone in the kitchen when he left nor had he thought anyone would see his boyfriend at all.
“If you want him to be here, go after him” She repeated. A smile spread across Lance’s face as he turned back to the door and ran out of it.
He continued running around the side of the house and onto the street in front of his home. He saw Shiro’s car slowly pulling away from it’s parking space a little ways down the road coming towards him.
Now Lance was smart, in some senses, however common sense wasn’t really his strong suit, especially when he had to react quickly, so he did something stupid that could have ended horribly if it wasn’t for Shiro’s quick reflexes. He jumped into the middle of the road.
The car’s brakes screeched and it stopped around 5ft in front of Lance. Keith was quick to jump out of the passenger seat.
“Lance what are you doing?!” He shouted. Lance wasted no time in moving forward capturing his lips in a strong, passionate kiss. His arms wrapped around Keith’s neck as Keith’s wrapped around his waist and they kept going until they ran out of breath.
“What was that for?” Keith asked
“I love you and I don’t care who knows or what anyone thinks” Lance said. That was the first time those three words had ever came out of Lance’s mouth directed at Keith but they had been in his mind for weeks, if not months.
Keith captured his lips in another kiss, this one a little more tame
“I love you too” He said
“Now, repark your car Shiro, you’re both invited to the rest of my party” Lance said taking Keith’s hand in his and walking back towards his house.
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The three boys all walked around the side of the house and through the kitchen door. Lance’s mom stood where she had been when he left and raised an eyebrow at them as they entered.
“Mama this is my friend Shiro and this is his adopted brother slash my boyfriend Keith” He said smiling awkwardly
“Nice to meet you two” His mom said “Everyone is starting to wonder where you went Lance you should probably get back in there” She was smiling widely at the three. She noticed Keith’s red shirt underneath is worn leather jacket, how it stood out against the blue shirt Lance was wearing and thought back to the whole balloon colour choices.
“Ok” Lance replied. He took Keith’s hand in his own and lead the two through the house to where the party was.
As he entered the room, he looked over at his other friends who all had varying looks on their faces. Hunk had a huge smile, Pidge a confused look and Allura seemed shocked.
“Hey, Keith, Shiro” Hunk said getting up to greet them
“Hey Hunk” They both replied
“What are you two doing here?” Allura asked
“I invited them” Lance said, pulling Keith past a group of people and sitting on the sofa with his friends. Hunk, Shiro and Keith on the main part, Allura on a chair next to it and Pidge on an arm. Lance squeezed next to Keith and lay his legs across his lap, and was very aware of a lot of eyes staring at them.
He tried his best to ignore it and just continue talking to his friends but when he heard whispers coming from his cousins who were just a bit older than him, he turned to face them.
“What?” He asked
“Why are your legs on him” One of his cousins asked, this particular cousin was the worst of the dicks, complete asshole.
“Cause there’s not enough room for all of us to sit properly on the sofa” Lance said as if it was obvious
“Yeah but why are your legs on his lap, why not get one of the girls to sit on a guys lap, more room then?” He said putting emphasis on the word your
“Because the girls don’t want to sit on any of our laps, so they don’t have to”
“And you do?” His cousin sneered
“I wouldn’t mind, my boyfriend is quite comfy to be honest” Lance said leaning further into Keith who put an arm around his shoulders
“You’re joking right? You’re not gay”
“I am not joking, however I’m also not gay. I’m bi”
Now everyone’s eyes were on them, listening to what he was saying. He saw his siblings faces, Veronica had a proud smile on her face; Luis, Marco and Rachel just looked confused.
But their eyes were quickly diverted when the door from the food room opened and in came his mom carrying the cake, candles lit. She walked over to Lance and everyone began singing Happy Birthday. He was honestly surprised when he heard Keith sing from next to him, no matter what Lance did Keith would never sing, so of course he would do it in front of his whole family where Lance would look really weird if he got excited about someone singing.
Lance paused before blowing out his candles, he looked around and his gaze settled on Keith. He thought for a moment before making his wish and blowing out his candles.
“What did you wish for?” Keith asked in a whisper close to his ear
“I can’t tell you, it might not come true then and I really want it to”
The cake was cut and people went to collect pieces. Keith was not one of them. Lance resumed sitting where he had been before whilst Keith was talking to Shiro. This was the perfect opportunity. He gathered some icing on his fingers and wiped it on Keith’s cheek.
Keith turned to face him, shock painted on his face. Lance just laughed, well until he felt something be wiped on his nose. Now Keith was laughing.
“Oh, you didn’t” Lance said in a mock angry tone
“You started it” Keith joked back
“You’re so gonna get it” Lance said before picking more icing up on his finger and attempting to wipe it on Keith again but Keith was quicker and held Lance’s arms away from him before he could get any on him.
The two boys play fought, trying to get the icing on the other person whilst laughing. They were so oblivious to the world around them that they didn’t notice all the eyes once again staring at them or when Lance nearly knocked the piece of cake onto the floor and Allura caught it.
Before either boy could win the icing fell, straight onto Keith’s leather jacket. They both stopped and looked at each other, silence now filling the room before they once again burst into laughter.
The idea of telling everyone about Keith had been scary to Lance but now he didn’t care. He was enjoying his birthday with all of his favourite people and that was all that he cared about. The stares and the whispers, though annoying, he knew weren’t important because the only people who mattered were the people who loved and supported him no matter what.
“Happy birthday beautiful, I love you”
“Thank you handsome, I love you too”