Work Text:
“so you don’t hate me?”
“NO! I HAVE NEVER HATED YOU KEITH! PLEASE!”
Keith looks so shocked by this revelation that Lance’s heart breaks. And he can only blame himself for that. He grabs Keith’s hands and holds them softly. He notices that Keith is shaking. He somehow gathers the courage to speak again,
“look, Keith, I understand why you would think that I hate you, all that rivalry and the mean comments and teasing...I ” he sighs, “I’m so sorry”
He looks at Keith and sees that there are tears running down his cheeks now, he looks so broken and-
“oh Keith… come here!”
And all of a sudden Keith is engulfed in a bear tight hug.
Having no other option, he accepts defeat and melts into Lance’s embrace. There was no way he could control himself now, so he let it all out, sobbing hard on Lance’s shoulder, squeezing him tightly as if his life depended on it.
Maybe it did.
Throughout the whole outburst, Lance didn’t say anything, just kept rubbing gentle circles on Keith’s back.
When Keith finally calmed down and peeled himself from Lance’s shoulder, he gathers the courage to speak,
“I- I don’t hate you either, I never did, but it felt bad when I realized that you didn’t consider me a friend, and probably hated me, when I didn’t even know why you wanted to be rivals sooo bad, and all I ever wanted was to be your friend…”
“I know, it’s just that when we were at the garrison, every teacher wanted me to be like you, they were always comparing me with you, so I grew jealous of your skills, and the resentment kinda grew when you met me after a long time and didn’t remember me..”
“I did!“ Keith interrupts, “I just, panicked when you came out of nowhere…” he reveals hesitantly.
“oh!, well still, I- I know that I was being childish and immature… I never never wanted to hurt you, Keith, I swear! Everything just got out of hand I guess. I promise I’ll behave from now on and treat you with the respect you deserve.”
Keith shakes his head,“ more than your respect, I want your friendship…if you want to… ”
Lance pulls him in again,” of course!”
Keith sighs and accepts the hug wholeheartedly. After a few minutes, they break apart, still standing close. Lance glances at Keith’s hair, then asks with a gentle voice,
“would you like me to fix your hair? Make the strands even? I used to cut my siblings’ hair all the time”
Keith looks hesitant for a moment but then nods,
“okay”
And for the first time since they started this conversation, Lance finds a small smile on Keith’s lips.
Lance smiles back, places a hand on his shoulder,” I’ll be right back with everything we’ll need ok?”
Keith nods again and Lance is off to his own room.
As soon as he’s alone in his room, Keith groans. That was sooo embarrassing! He cried! In front of Lance!!! ughhh, kill me now!!!
But then he smiles, Lance doesn't hate me! He doesn’t HATE ME!!!! he’s my friend now!!!! hell yeah!!
Soon, Lance returns with a pair of scissors, a towel, and some kinda cloth.
He drags Keith to the bathroom and makes him sit in front of the mirror. He wraps the cloth around his neck, so that it catches all the hair that will fall and starts running wet hands through Keith’s hair.
“We don’t have a spray so we’ll have to make do with just wetting your hair like this”
Keith just nods and Lance starts his work. And Keith closes his eyes to let him do his work.
After a while, Keith opens his eyes to find that Lance is humming. He tries to think about what song it could be but comes up blank. But despite that, he realizes that he likes it. This is the first time he has felt so at peace with someone, at least it’s been a while. He closes his eyes again with a smile.