Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“I tell you, chat, this game is killing me.” A Japanese man with long, dark hair glowered to the camera as he helplessly watched his character in game roll off a cliff. He looked at the monitor to his right, where the window showing his chat was opened on. The chat was on a roll, and it gave the man a slight smile.

“Run’s dead.” Keith shouted with an overly exaggerated tone, to the pleasure of his audience, following up with a long ‘yay’. This only made the chat even more excited. It was one of the many things that made his stream such a fun thing to get through, especially since most of it were incredibly dull without someone to talk over it. After rapidly opening up a new game just by using his keyboard, the familiar pang was heard, introducing him to his umpteenth run of Grand Theft Auto Five. Screams of fictional victims of a fictional cash depot heist had put him into the beginning of the game.

     “Get down there!”

     “Alright, everybody pays attention, nobody gets hurt.”

Keith has heard the same line over and over again, but he wouldn’t have picked anything other than this. Not when he had an audience that shown some sort of appreciation to his dry, awkward humor. At first, of course, he wasn’t keen on showing his inner monologue on the game. He’d been playing it for a while, since it had been released, but when the word of speedrunning had arrived upon his online doorstep, he had to try it out. At first, he only streamed to prove that he wasn’t a cheat. But, after one year, he had gone from a closed off gameplay-oriented streamer to one with a slight personality. Laughing on camera, making dad jokes, even creating inside humor for his community. No one would predict that so many people would be interested in a young, secluded man playing a game competitively as fast as possible, but he guessed that his so called ‘charm’ was what made people returned. After all, if people came back, he was funny, right? He thought that the past Keith would probably have barfed from the attention, but present him had embraced it, at last. He probably wouldn’t have it another way, anyway.

Usually, he would stick to a routine. Streams from Monday to Saturday. Wednesdays were reserved for the fun streams. An unusual modded run of the same game – Grand Theft Auto V, or maybe a stream where he would pick up his camera and venture into the outside, although it usually would just become something akin to a funny vlog inside his empty house. Emphasis on the empty part. That’s why he hated showing his house. It’s unbeatably empty. Too empty.

Continuing on, yes. He would much rather just sit inside his studio room and capture the fun of the Chaos Mod, which was the recent trend of Grand Theft Auto comedy. Nothing like total randomness and pushing the game’s limits to squeeze out something funny from a nine-year-old game.

The next run was more… well, convenient. The first few missions went by quickly, although there were some slight mistakes, Keith had gotten through the first act of the game with a decent time. Being someone with more than seven thousand hours invested into this one single game can make him just that good. Although, the landmarks were always something he hated. There wasn’t anything to brag about seven thousand hours. Seven thousand viewers, maybe. But not definitely not him on Arusia.tv. And seven thousand on YouTube was nothing.

Going through the more monotonous areas of the run was paradoxically easier for Keith. He only needed to use his muscle memory, as he looked at his chat, which was as alive as when he’d started. He would speak about many topics that the people in the chat had been discussing about, anything from personal questions, like “do you like pizza?” to philosophical ones like “is it moral to clickbait?” He was passionate about some of these topics, and his favorite topics would end up on his YouTube channel, under the name of RedCat03, which was pretty much his universal internet alias.

In the end, his second run was what he considered ‘alright’. Nothing about it was groundbreaking, and the game was as broken as Keith had expected it to be. He summarized the two runs he’d done in a quick three-minute sequence before swaying his head to the all-too familiar credits soundtrack of his not-so favorite video game. A quick minute of that later, the game was closed, and what followed was a game of Marbles. Something that had became tradition for the closing of every stream he broadcasted. It was just a long and stretched out version of pulling a name out of a hat. And the winner would get a free subscription on his channel – receiving benefits such as the lion emotes that his channel was known for.

This time, it was someone called ‘KoenigAlfor’ that had won. “Congratulations, Cou- KoenigAlfor. Sorry for butchering your name.” A quick chuckled escaped him. “Anyway, here’s your free sub.”

A few clicks later, and Keith saw Koenig give their thanks to him. Something that always warmed his heart. There wasn’t anything more than his community that had always kept him going, even in his darkest days.

He’d remember the day his father passed away.

It was supposed to be a normal Wednesday stream, and he was reading his community subreddit for the beginning of a new month. The text came like an atomic bomb. It was just a small ‘ding’. The banner had cleverly disguised whatever his relatives had said. And when he saw the news, the stream ended. The next time the Internet had saw the speedrunner was a week after, with the man himself filled to the brink with tiredness.

It was pretty lucky that he was able to tell his fans about it first. “My father died from a housefire last week.” He announced solemnly. And his chat reacted similarly.

     notapanther: omg, condolences!!!!

     Republiko: im sorry about that, hope you feel better after the break

     blueishblues: I’m sorry for you loss, Keith. I wish I could be there for you.

This fan of his – blueishblues was especially kind. He had never found anyone that cared more than him, and he smiled every time that familiar name had came around his stream. Even on his YouTube channel, he would find that same name, and that same charm.

Blueish-Blue

     I love this series, keep it up Keefy!!!!

Keith could never resist smiling at that nickname. It was just something born out of having hundreds of thousands of different people – and having twenty adorable lion emotes lying around. He could admit that it would be embarrassing if he was called that in the real world, yes, but come on! Who doesn’t want to be called an adorable name online by thousands of people?!

Keith would.

He ended the stream with a cute boop, the relaxing music from Kingdom Hearts playing over his outro screen: snow drifting onto a frost-ridden bench in the middle of a park.

A small cough begun his stream. “Okay. This song was requested by…” The Cuban hosting the stream paused. He held a guitar on his arms, with a plain black foam background behind him and his microphone held on his desk in front of him. The man was tall, had brown hair and had lips that slightly twitched upwards once in a while. It all added to the man that hosted the Arusia.tv channel blueishblue.

“This song was requested by… Big Old Blue, which left me a message.” Lance read. “You are one of the most talented streamers I have been watching. Thanks, Big Old Blue.” He chuckled humbly, before strumming his guitar a few times, testing its notes and preparing for an hour of playing it. He looked at his stream’s viewers. It was the usual nineties, fluctuating up to one hundred occasionally. Although he never had a large crowd (relative to many much more famous performers) to play to, there was never any problem with a smaller one. In fact, he liked having a small audience. That meant that he could remember every single one of his regular viewers. It deepened the connection between him and his viewers. Then, he begun with the song.

     The mystery of me is a mystery I’d rather solve with you~

Another one, requested by someone called ‘rommelleroman’. “Thanks, Rommelle.” Lance laughed. Rommelle was one of his friends in university. Good times, he thought.

     …being with you, lights up my stars, and without you, I’d fall apart…

And another, this time a cover of Maybe by the Ink Spots, requested by one ‘wobblybutter’.

      Maybe, you’ll think of me, when you are all alone…

The sound of his acoustic guitar radiated around him, echoing into the microphone and back to him through his earphones. Nothing like hearing his own voice while attempting to sing to nearly a hundred people. At first, he was not used to it, and he would blunder when he’d hear even a microsecond of his own voice during practice. But, as time went on, he learnt to like his high-ish pitch voice that accented his guitar perfectly. He wasn’t one to be confident enough to praise himself, but his singing satisfied himself – and he hoped it can satisfy everyone else.

After the end of the song, he added in his signature phrase. “Brought to you by McClain, King of Arusian Country and Blues.” A smug smirk appeared, before it faded into a charade of giggles.

“Inspired by John Denver and Mumford & Sons, yes.” Lance said, reading his chat. He could recognize most who spoke in it. There was Big Old Blue, a usual viewer, along with others. Sadgeodes1912, evanfans, jeplar222, cramscramble. What disappointed him wasn’t that there were never enough people to fill the chat with traffic, it was that he couldn’t even meet those people who’d watch him every week, even for just an hour or two. He wished that one day; he could be able to speak to them outside of a computer screen. Somehow, become friends with those people.

Lance McClain is a country and blues singer. A Cuban one. Weird, really, when he started his guitarist career, it was with a couple of country artists from a disbanded band, in his musical university. After he had graduated, there wasn’t much of a chance to learn his ancestral roots’ music.

Lance also dabbled in audio editing and mixing, creating beautiful relaxing melodies for himself, along with what he hoped was thousands of people to listen to while they could work on whatever they needed to work on. Homework, a report, a presentation, a music sheet. And he would feel better whenever he imagined a high school kid using his music to finish that long and difficult English essay. Anything to help people who are in need for stress relief, which he had longed for before the eventual growth of online song streaming.

A few minutes of conversing with his chat later, he’d went back to playing the guitar. This time, it was one of his songs that he’d release to an album. He was proud of it.

     …and these starlights, they are waste without you…

     …my days are empty, nothing but dreary, singing this song, has made me feel lonely…

His voice was soft to his own ears. An occasional dive in pitch made him feel like Frank Sinatra, or… maybe Dinah Washington. He definitely will need to cover Mad About the Boy as a coming out song. Giving himself a note to do that, one day, he continued humming as he solod the guitar, before going through the last chorus and ending the song with a melodious chord.

“Thank you all for listening and watching. This is blueishblue McClain, signing out. Bye.” And so, he stopped recording. He was quite lucky that no one knew his first name. He had a small audience, yes, but even within five thousand or so YouTube subscribers and five hundred Arusian viewers at peak, there were guesses. Some guessed a purely Latino name. Alejandro (his middle name, yes, but he wasn’t going to say that they guessed something right), Cesar, Luis. While some, were dipping into near-insane levels of creativity. Who the fuck calls their children ‘Lotor’, ‘Zarkon’, ‘Cranium’ or ‘Thor’?! If he had awards to give, he would definitely reward those people with those awards. Definitely for creativity in the sake of name-guessing.  

After he had turned off the stream, he was definitively exhausted. Even worse – he’s a teacher. And not unlike his students, piles of work were just there, staring at him judgmentally. “Shut up, work.” Lance voiced his discomfort, before turning it open, ready for another night of correcting the stack of lab reports. Being a teacher AND streaming as a side job wasn’t anything terrible, really. He never had a schedule to begin with, and if things got stressful, he could always announce to his viewers that he had to take a break. He barely earned anything that could dent his monthly bills, anyway.

As he got through half of the reports, his mind turned to his music. And a few clicks later, the familiar sound of trumpets, saxophones, drum beats and light taps on cymbals fill his brain with relaxation. Nothing like a fusion of jazz and modern lo-fi melodies. A small smile grew on his lips as he got into the rhythm of checking and marking, only occasionally stopping for the more on edge answers on the report. There was never anything too much, though, he gladly thought.

With the last paper finished, he dove back into his studio, ready to spend the rest of his night editing. And just as he begun to be sucked into the dreaminess of his music, along with the classics from Stevie Wonder and Louis Armstrong, a notification popped up on his phone. An email in his business address.

He looked at the sender.

Wait. It can’t be.

     Message from [email protected]

     Subject: Music commission

Oh my god.

He switched tabs, opening up RedLion’s YouTube account, rapidly reaching for the about section. It can’t be…

     Business email: [email protected]

Holy crow.

Fifteen hours ago

Twenty minutes before a stream, Keith would open up his Spotify app, and find some royalty free music to play over his long, four-to-eight-hour streams. There wasn’t anywhere that could provide long and large swaths of background music other than two sources, though. The first, was Chillhop, the creator of mass-produced lo-fi music that he would play all day, even when editing and just relaxing in general. He loved anything to do with drum beats, especially the crisp sound of the bass drum resonating within him.

The second, was a commission. Once in a while, Keith would commission one, or a few artists to help him create a playlist of music. And most of the time, their music wasn’t really remarkable. There wasn’t much to add on something such as the modern version of elevator music, and most of the time the musicians he’d hire were ones that had passion on much different musical styles. If only he could directly hire the people in Chillhop, he thought.

Looking at his chat on a new stream, early in the morning, he felt reinvigorated. Even when sometimes, his audience would have more harmful advice than good ones, they still gave him motivation to start up. No matter if it’s a difficult and dull challenge or a fun time with a stupidly funny game a fan had picked out for him, it wasn’t until he’d read the first few messages inside his chat that he’d feel like he deserved this life, earning as much money as a middle-class man in an office job while barely doing any work involved in labor, business or academics.

As always, his regular viewers quickly popped up, almost as fast as his chat’s moderators.

     Koyganefanzz: hiiii keefyyyy (waving lion emote)

     blueishblues: keefyy good morning (lion inside blanket emote) x 3

     thesantaclaws: :DDDD REDLION STREAM AT 12 AM

Keith laughed at the last message. Timezones were always a problem when it came to livestreaming. Anyone who did what he did knew that this was a major blockade from reaching higher milestones. Even when the majority of his audience lived at about the same timezone as his, he was still slightly disappointed that some would be unable to watch his stream on time.

“So, chat. I was just looking up some new music. Got any recommendations?”

And this one question had spawned thousands, perhaps even millions of answers, probably stemming from the same few people. They would range from hilariously stupid ones that’d probably kill his channel if played on stream, or ones that didn’t sound so bad – if they weren’t overused to hell by other streamers. One single message, or twenty-five, had caught his attention. All from blueishblue, his incredibly kind loyal fan.

     blueishblue: (an address to his channel) CHECK IT OUT I JUST RELEASED A SONG (happy lion emote) x 2

Keith smiled. Whoever this person was, they seemed adorably enthusiastic, and he was moderately shocked that he hadn’t noticed this person was a content creator, too.

“Alright, we’ll check you out, blueishblue.” Keith spoke with a smile on his face. Clicking the link, he hoped that Blue hadn’t betrayed him and joined the rickroll party. It was clean, thankfully, and the first thing he saw was the introduction video to the channel Blueish_Blue.

Welcome to the Kingdom of Country and Blues!

The video’s icon was of a Latino-looking man with a guitar on his hand. He had a passionate smile and Keith returned a smile to the man. He had gleaming eyes and he wore a nice, dark green jacket that complemented his overall body well. Although he was used to talking to faceless people that only manifested as text on his screen, he was incredibly grateful that he was able to peek into Blueish_Blue’s channel.

Realizing that he gaped at Blue’s channel, Keith flung his pointer to Blue’s newest video. That was slightly embarrassing. He thought. And as the video begun to play, he realized that he’d clicked into an audio-only video, showing not the tall, skinny man, but the silhouette of him in front of the view of a street that felt slightly too similar to him. He shrugged the feeling off when the first tunes began to play.

     …Appalachia, pillars of the heavens…

     …casting light into the night, driving deep through the valley roads…

     …Oh, Carolina, you seem so wonderful…

The melody was heavenly. Blue’s voice came in sounding like an angel, and Keith was honest enough to admit it to himself. He’s gay. And he loved this voice of this boy that had been such a loyal fan for so long. He could imagine Blue being placed among the greatest with the shallow knowledge of country artists that Keith knew. John Denver, Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins. And among them, whoever this man was. The first big Latino country singer.

As the song ended, he realized he was still livestreaming. “Definitely not going on YouTube.” Keith muttered with a sheepish smile. How the hell could one song render him speechless?

“Amazing song, Blue. But this isn’t, like background music, you know?”

     blueishblue: WAIT I GOT SOME ON SPOTIFY SEARCH MY NAME

“Okay, Blue.”

He quickly typed in Blue’s username into the Spotify searchbar, his overlays making sure he wasn’t outing his own musical choices. Some were… very homosexual.

And heading into Blue’s channel on Spotify, it wasn’t anything Keith hadn’t expected. Blues and country-like song titles. Except, there was one album that seemed different from the others. The cover, unlike the monochromatic photos of the other albums, was a Japanese animation-esque picture of what seemed like the downtown of a city. It was Columbia, South Carolina. Only a few miles from his small suburb. What if Blue lives in Columbia? He asked himself. And he didn’t know if he wanted the answer to be a ‘yes’.

Opening the album, he played the first song. And Blue was correct. This was what he was finding. Something different. A clash of jazz and modern lo-fi, with trumpets, bassoons and the piano breaking apart the crisp noise of a drum beat. It all mixed well into an amazing orchestra of brass and wind, only enhanced by the electronic altering and an addition of a few synthetic beats.

“This could work. Thank you, Blue. You’re really talented. Thank you.”

Blue spammed out happy lion emotes, and Keith was attempting to stop grinning.

After the end of the stream, during one of his late-night editing sessions, Keith had an epiphany. He could commission Blue, which he had done to several artists that he’d admired before. Except, this felt slightly different to Keith. Something in him hoped that this would open a conversation between him and Blue. But all of that depends on if he accepted commissions, of course.

Clicking into Blue’s YouTube channel, he noticed the Instagram logo on his banner. Blue had an Instagram. Holy crap. He was definitely going to look into that. After the webpage loaded, he was greeted with a photo of Blue looking up towards the sky. Keith noticed that his eyes were blue. Oh my God, they were blue. The photo seemed like a candid photo that was posted by… someone. A part of him hoped whoever the photographer is, they weren’t romantic with Blue. Oh, wait, right. The commission.

He looked into his About section, revealing that he was accepting commissions right above his business email. A shameful grin appeared on his face, something that he couldn’t wipe off until he began to write up a draft for Blue.

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Subject: Music commission

     Firstly, I love your work.

Is that too forward? Love? Wait, what? Whatever. Doesn’t matter.

     I want to request a purchase for a second album of lo-fi music that will be presented for livestreams on Arusia.tv, and might be included in several of my YouTube videos. I mostly do gaming content and I often play soft music in      the background.

     You will be credited in the description of every video, which will include the link to your Arusia and YouTube accounts, and I will verbally shout you out in the streams that include your music.

     I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

Shit, I hope he accepts.

“Oh my God, Hunk!” Lance shouted into his phone’s receiver. Hunk had been Lance’s best friend ever since his family had moved from Cuba to South Carolina. He was probably one of the best cooks in the universe, and worked as an engineer. Hunk was also Lance’s roommate, although he had to stay at his mother’s for a while when Lance had received the email.

“What? Lance? What is it?”

“I- he- Keith…”

“Keith?” Hunk tilted his head in confusion.

“Yes! Him!” He screamed.

“What happened to him?”

“He emailed me!”

“What?”

Lance turned on his phone’s camera, which captured the screen that was presenting Keith’s email.

“Look!” Lance shouted again. “Oh my god!”

“Oh man, you hit the jackpot!” Hunk replied enthusiastically. He was equally a fan of RedLion as Lance, and they would make time to watch his livestreams together, even grabbing popcorn or some equally delicious movie snacks. To say Hunk was a fanboy too, was an understatement. “What does it say?”

“He wants to commission music from me, Hunk. From me!”

A laugh came from his phone. “You’re so far gone for him, man.”

Lance blushed. Yes, he had a strong crush on that mulleted speedrunner. Yes, he knew how little of a chance he could ever date that angel of a man. Don’t tell Keith he called him that.

“Are you going to email him back, or what?”

And then it hit him. He was supposed to talk with him, that beautiful boy that he watched and laughed with for so long.

He so was screwed.

     Re: Music commission

     I’d be glad to make music for you, RedLion! And just for you, the price is free (winking face)

Keith almost choked on his saliva. Not only is Blue attractive, he’s flirty, too?!

     Re: Re: Music commission

     I cannot accept that, apologies. Name me a price, please.

“What the hell?! How can someone be that polite?” Lance shouted. Hunk sighed into his receiver.

     Re: Re: Re: Music commission

     No worries, RedLion, really! Your content alone can pay for the music. Just make sure to say that I made it! (winking face, again)

That boy was going be the death of him. For some reason, that compliment really stuck on Keith hard.

     Re: Re: Re: Re: Music commission

     Fine. Yes, I am still crediting your music. I can’t believe so little people have heard of your music! Thank you for your generosity, Blue. (smiley face)

“HE PUT A SMILEY FACE. OH MY GOD!” Lance screamed, once again. This time though, he could only hear silence over his phone being hung up. He burst into laughter, excitement flowing through his veins. He really did feel like a teenager again.

Chapter Text

Two weeks later

      To: [email protected]

      From: [email protected]

      Subject: Album

     Attachment: keefjazz (25 files)

     Keith, your album has been finished. I hope you are pleased with the results. The album can be shared with anyone with your discretion. Also, can we exchange Discord? My tag is Sharpshooter#4213

     Re: Album

     kogayne#0001

     Please do not share this username to the public. Thank you. By the way, loved your album :)

“Holy crow.” Lance whispered. “This is actually happening.”

“Alright, chat. You ready?” Keith took a deep breath, wiping his bangs away from his eyelashes. He noted to himself that he’d need an appointment with his barber soon. “My hair looks… stupid, great.” He said, looking to his camera’s screen. He cleared his throat.

“Alright. I’ve been going through some music, and we’re changing it up a bit.” Music was turned on, and a flow of soft beats introduced the trumpet into the foreground. Keith gave the music a smile, reminding himself that it was Blue’s. The first fan he had that he could actually picture inside his head. A Latino boy, probably his age, skinny, tall, brown hair, signature smug smile. The only thing missing was his personality and his voice, both of which he wished he could experience as soon as possible.

“Hello and welcome to the fourth entry of the GTA 5 Chaos Mod series, where the Arusia chat will be voting on random things to happen to my game.” Keith announced.

“So, last time we left off the Jewel Store Job, and we’ll be entering Trevor’s side of the map sometime soon.”

“Hopefully soon.” He added. “God, this intro sucks.” He laughed, and unpaused the game, the mix between Blue’s lo-fi music and the ambience of the game really blended in, although he had to mix and match the volumes of the two audio sources. Glancing at the chat, he noticed Blue’s strong presence, nearly dominating the forum with messages about his music. It wouldn’t be respectful to just let him do it alone, would it?

“Also, this playlist is made by blueishblue for the background music, who I had commissioned. You can check his stuff out down in the description. Do it, chat.” He smiled, as Blue began to go nearly insane in the chat. “And Blue, if you keep spamming, I’m gonna have to time you out.”

Keith couldn’t resist a small chuckle. He could imagine the boy behind Blue shouting out his words of gratitude that he’d typed out in this chat, giving out full laughs in his excitement. “THANK YOU KEEFY”

“You’re welcome, Blue.” Keith blushed. He blushed in front of three thousand people. Fuck, Blue was just too adorable. He had a god-damn gay crush on Blue. How was he going to explain that to himself?

His smile faded as embarrassment flooded in, and he quickly reached for a quick escape as the character in game was killed, once again, by the devious Chat and its sidekick, RNG. He would go the same exact route, drive the same identical car, and despite the known easiness of that one simple drive, the mod itself had delayed Keith about fifteen minutes in a what would’ve been one minute drive. It was annoyingly funny to most people, including him. It was what kept him from stopping, even on the fourth time that he’d begun the series. Strangely, even when nothing had changed to the formula, new things would happen. Things that even Keith, with his seven thousand hours in this game, would be surprised to experience.

Temporarily, he was distracted. And it wasn’t until his two-hour-and-a-half session of the Chaos Mod ended, that he finally had to deal with his feelings. Blue, holding his guitar, singing with a near-perfect voice. Blue, who spent nearly two weeks creating music that Keith was going to use for free. Blue, who looked incredibly attractive to the starstruck Keith with his blue eyes and green jacket or blue hoodie, which he noticed that Blue would only wear it in his blues songs’ music videos. Said music videos, which emphasized on his attractiveness.

“I like him.” He spoke to himself, his voice quivering. “Oh my god.”

Kogayne: Hello, Blue. Again, I’m very grateful that you’ve made this album for me.

Kogayne: How are you?

“Okay, Lance. Don’t freak out. It’s just the hottest guy in the world messaging you at two in the morning, being adorable.”

Sharpshooter: Hi Keith! It’s so nice to be able to talk to you! I’m doing good thanks haha

Sharpshooter: You’re welcome!

Lance’s heart bounced around like crazy. Seeing Keith typing below the message bar had made him extraordinarily nervous.

Kogayne: Thanks, Blue. It’s a pleasure to be able to talk to you, too.

Sharpshooter: :DDDD

Keith chuckled. Is it even possible for someone to be that cute?

Sharpshooter: So

Sharpshooter: What’s up?

Kogayne: Just editing the Pacifist video I’ve been delaying for so long.  

Sharpshooter: Cool. So if we keep talking ill get the firsthand notice of what youll be working on

Kogayne: Haha no.

Sharpshooter: :(

Sharpshooter: Okay.

Sharpshooter: Can I be honest?

Kogayne: Sure.

Sharpshooter: The black shirt gets kinda boring sometimes ngl, where did you even get so many black shirts from????

Kogayne: I got those t-shirts from a discount store. They were cheap.

Sharpshooter: but you didn’t like get something other than pure black???

Kogayne: No, they were sold in bulk. And no, I don’t like anything other than pure black. I’m emo like that.

Sharpshooter: ??? Are you serious ????

Kogayne: Course not lmao. I have other shirts, but I prefer to wear black ones on stream. And haven’t you seen my jacket?

Sharpshooter: WEAR THAT JACKET EVERY STREAM

Kogayne: [GIF of Bugs Bunny saying no]

Hmm. Maybe I should. Keith stared at his red and white jacket that had been gathering dust in his closet. Maybe it was time to make it officially a RedLion trope? Perhaps. 

Sharpshooter: You really do act like this outside of streams? lol

In real life, Lance was laughing.

Kogayne: [Shrug emote]

And now, Lance was beaming.

The next day was a long day for Lance. Firstly, his alarm was off since last week’s Thursday was a public holiday. Being late for school as an adult was only one of his least urgent worries though, because he’d just forgotten about the whole stack of lab reports he was marking yesterday. He secretly cursed himself, before showing up in a rush into the school’s lab with his signature smile.

“Hey, class!” He beamed across the lab, to make sure each and every student was present. Luckily for him, they all were. Unluckily for him, he had to tell them that their lab reports were all at his home. Of course, he wasn’t going to relay his stupid reason. I forgot your lab reports because a cute livestreamer texted me and I couldn’t stop flushing and flustering. He was just, this far gone for Keith. Fuck, he’d give up anything to meet him one day.

He could only wish for that magical day, though. The present day went on, although his empty periods went on smoothly, his last period just had to have some blunder in it.

“Mr. McClain, Jonas poured acid all over my watch!”

“He what?”

Rushing to the ‘crime scene’, he saw as acid boiled all over a girl’s watch. The girl, Helen, had her lab coat’s sleeve soaked in what probably was the same hydrochloric acid. Now, there was messing around in the chemistry lab, but Jonas was always someone that’d step on your goldfish just to laugh at your ugly-crying noises. But as always, justice prevails.

After convincing Helen to take off his lab coat, Lance took out a dark glass bottle from the cabinet, unable to resist a mischievous grin appearing on his face. With his gloved hands, he scooped the goo inside – the mineral oil – and dropped it on Jonas’ shoulder. As expected, Jonas groaned, while Helen and Lance high-fived before having a victory cheer.

“How am I supposed to clean that off?” Jonas nearly shouted.

“Don’t worry, it’s just oil. Soap’ll clean it right off. Trust me.”

Jonas nodded, before going back to whatever he was working on with his partner. Facing away from the ninth-grade class, he secretly snickered as he imagined Jonas attempting to scrub off every single droplet of mineral oil from his skin for probably an hour. Sure, soap does wonders, but mineral oil remembers.

Lance returned home exhausted, sighing on the way up the third floor, on the second-to-last door in the hallway. But as he opened the front door to his apartment, a strong, aromatic scent came out of his house. The smell of tomatoes, meat and cheese cooking in a pot.

“What’s cooking, Hunk?” Lance asked as he threw his canvas bag onto the couch. Hunk was the cook of the pair, most of the time. Lance knew how to cook, yeah, but Hunk knew how to make food. The Polynesian exceeded Lance’s expectations when they first began to live together, and eventually, they settled into a six-to-one routine. Lance would cook on Saturdays, while Hunk would do the rest of the week. It didn’t matter to Hunk, anyway. He loved to cook, especially Italian food.

“Chicken parmesan, I’m just making the sauce. Added some minced meat in there too.”

“That is a lot of meat, then.” Lance remarked as he stepped into the kitchen, embracing the warmth of the stovetop heat.

“Not really, the chicken is bit small.” Hunk pointed at two packets of chicken breast, which looked unusually small, like parts of it were cut by some cheap butcher, which they totally were.

“It was cheaper, okay?” Lance pouted. It was only three days ago when he’d bought the meat in the local supermarket. Not paying attention to the size, Lance had accidentally bought a couple of unusually small chicken breasts. He theorized that the Big Chicken had cut off parts of the breast and sold it to him to destroy his rep as a trustworthy chicken-buyer. Hunk reminded him that there were bigger pieces of meat right next those shrunken breasts, while Lance said “That’s what she said.” Regardless, it was his own loss as his roommate’s cooking was just too good to complain about anything else.

Eventually, Hunk finished up frying the two pieces of chicken, and Lance helped plating it after a good half hour in the oven, wiping their dining table clean, setting down the silverware and placing a piece of parsley leaf on each of the completed dishes. They sat down excitedly, and dug in.

“I would definitely prefer this over Gordon Ramsay, Hunk.” Lance said with food in his mouth. “You’re just the best, man.”

Hunk gave out a small chuckle. “Thanks, buddy.”

Keith’s Thursday stream was tiring at best. Technical issues plagued his runs, and even when he had thought that he was clear of those issues, more would appear and ruin his day. At least he had his jacket to keep him warm. He could imagine Blue freaking out over it, and that alone had brightened up his day.

“This. Game. Is. Broken.” He shouted, lightly banging on his desk. Groaning hard, he slumped back on his seat before quickly closing the game and preventing another issue from nearly destroying his computer. Now, Keith wasn’t much of a tech-savvy guy. He was quite good at engineering, as he had gotten a degree in it before going into streaming, but anything that had to do with software would confuse him until no end. And the worst thing that could happen to him would always be the main video game he streams bugging and glitching out, either ruining his stream or forcing him to tweak his internet. All of that was exhausting.

Cracking his knuckles, he had finally decided to end the stream early. At least he had something exciting to do post-stream now.

“Okay, chat. We’ll do a game of marbles, then I’ll come back after dinner. See you guys.” Keith flashed a quick smile to the camera, before turning it off, and going offline.

Kogayne: Hello!

Kogayne: Thanks for the music, again. I really appreciate it :)

Lance could probably die happy now. Not only did RedLion, who WORE HIS JACKET AFTER HE TOLD HIM TO replied the first time, he had decided to talk to him again. Like, who has the privilege to meet his celebrity crush twice in a row?

Sharpshooter: No problem, man, I’m a huge fan of you so yea. You don’t have to thank me every time we speak

Kogayne: Too bad, I am totally doing that. :p

Kogayne: How’s your day going? Apologies for the short stream earlier, by the way

He asked how my day was. Lance’s smile was simply unstoppable now.

Sharpshooter: went to work late, forgot some stuff, someone got acid on a kid’s watch. So, good :))))

Kogayne: Acid?

Sharpshooter: Yes. I’m a chemistry teacher.

What the hell, Blue’s a teacher? And he plays music? Keith blushed as he praised Blue for his genius inside his head.

Sharpshooter: The acid really screwed that watch, too

Sharpshooter: I think her parents are gonna complain, hopefully not to me

Kogayne: Yeah, hopefully not, haha

Kogayne: what happened that prompted the kid to do that, though?

Sharpshooter: I dunno

Sharpshooter: kids, I guess

We should call each other. Keith thought to type in. But perhaps it was too early?

Sharpshooter: What do you do outside streaming?

Kogayne: Editing, playing GTA offline, eating, sleeping, all that stuff. I guess this is my job

Kogayne: talking to you, pr stuff yknow

Lance chuckled.

Sharpshooter: Lmao. So you don’t do anything else other than livestreaming and playing GTA?

Kogayne: Yeppie. I was building a motorcycle a while ago. Sold all the parts away when streaming got into my life. Just thought riding one was more fun than making one

Sharpshooter: I see, so you have a motorcycle?

Suddenly, Keith’s phone buzzed. Picking it up, he saw that it was his manager.

“Hey there, Keith, my boy!.” The caller greeted Keith with energy. “Good job with the new music, you’ve gotten quite some nice comments from it.”

“Thanks, Coran. The music’s made by a fan. Do you think it’s good if I talk to him?”

“What do you mean, Number One?” Coran asked. He would call Keith ‘Number One’, because he’s Coran’s most popular client. Keith reacted with a scoff and accepted it as a compliment.

“I’ve been messaging him on Discord. I’m pretty sure we’re friends, I think.” A giddy feeling nearly surfaced from Keith.

Coran nearly shouted a long ‘oh’ into his phone, making Keith wince from it. Sure, he was used to the nearly-infinite energy that his manager had, but the shouting was still unexpected. “It’s no problem, you just have to make sure you don’t leak any secrets to him.”

“Alright, thanks Coran.”

“You’re welcome, Number One. Is there anything else?”

“Nope. Anything from your end?”

“No, boy. Well, I’ll be going now, good luck!” Coran shouted again, before hanging up.

Good luck? He thought, before shrugging that thought off. Coran sure was a strange man to work with. It was even weirder the first time he’d met him. Coran looked as unusual as how he acted in text and his calls – had orange hair and a mustache that looked impossible to Keith. They’d twist upwards on their ends, and his hair, which looked like Keith’s, but shorter and a lot more orange. By guessing, he had thought Coran was in his upper forties. To his surprise, the man was in his upper sixties, and Keith was quite intrigued by that unusually youthful skin tone that Coran had.

Regardless, he was glad that Coran was a friend to depend on, even outside professional topics. One time, after a long call about a sponsorship deal from a certain mobile video game company, Coran had given him a remark on one of Keith’s running jokes on his channel about another certain video game, containing cowboys, horses and attention to detail.

“One last thing, Red Dead Redemption 2, you’re totally wrong about that game, Number One!”

Keith chuckled. “It’s not my type of game, I guess.”

“Alright then, Keith.”  

Anyway, what was he doing?

Sharpshooter: Hello?

Oh. Keith grinned hopelessly into Lance’s profile picture, which was a picture of him in one of his thumbnails.

Kogayne: Oh, sorry. My manager called. Yes, I have a bike.

The bike he mentioned was probably his favorite inanimate object, although it was rarely used, due to the nature of how he earns money. The bike was bought by its owner only a year ago, and it was pretty expensive. Keith would’ve rather had nothing else, though. Whenever he wasn’t feeling like streaming nor editing his content, Keith would head to his garage to wash the bike, even when it’s nearly sparkling clean. Look, Keith is an enthusiast, and there’s nothing that could waste the perfect amount of time other than cleaning the few spots that always seemed dirty to him.

Kogayne: Want a pic of it?

Sharpshooter: Yes!!!

Keith’s heart had become wax in an oven. He jumped up and dashed to his garage, where his red motorcycle sat beside a few boxes of tools, a hose and some rags he was too lazy to dispose of. He took out his phone, and snapped a few pictures before running back into his studio room.

Kogayne: [Pictures of his motorcycle]

Kogayne: Here!

Kogayne: It’s a Honda CB500F. It was pretty hard to find a place that sold one in red, and at first, I wasn’t quite used to it, since I rode cheap scooters and stuff as a kid. But, you’ll love it when you get used to riding a fast bike like this.

Kogayne: Sorry for nerding out a bit haha

Oh my God, this guy is so cute, Lance thought.

Sharpshooter: Don’t worry haha its cute to listen to you

WHY DID I SAY THAT

Keith’s face darkened, nearly choking in his own saliva.

Sharpshooter: omg im sorry I meant nice

Sure, sharpshooter, nice… Keith thought. This boy was impossible. He leaned backwards, grinning hopefully as he imagined the countless conversations he would have with Blue. And maybe one day, he can say Blue’s true name. For now, he was betting on Leandro. Before he could go deeper into his shameful thoughts, rationality smacked him in his cheeks, turning it beet red.

"Time for dinner, Keith." He whispered to himself, before going for his phone.

“This is for my job. Especially you, Jack.” Lance announced. The crowd had a brief clap, as the person he pointed out mouthed out a “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t I-don’t-know-what-you’re-talking-about me, Jack!”

Jack, along with everyone else laughed, before shouting “Screw you” back to Lance.

Performing for the school as a teacher was the ultimate experience. Most of the time, Garrison High School would have their students, especially the school band perform, but occasionally, Lance would be allowed to perform in front of either his employees and employers, or whoever that was willing to pay a couple dollars to see some Latino play blues on the guitar. Incredibly, it did pull in some income for both Lance and the school. A good win-win situation for everyone.

Plus, it was a rarity to see anyone that’d notice that he was Blue. The high school wasn’t that big, and they lived in a small suburb away from town, where it wasn’t that common to find younger people outside of teenagers and a couple of high school graduates. Regardless, Lance’s passion gave him something unique inside his job, and he was happy that it turned out to be a success.

The lights were turned towards him, and after a small pause, he began with a small strum on his guitar.

Almost heaven, West Virginia.

A smile appeared on his face as he looked at the crowd, who cheered to the familiar song.

Blue ridge mountains, Shenandoah Mountains…

His voice, to himself, felt smooth, and he hoped that it did to the audience.

…Country roads, take me home…

Initially, as he began singing, his voice strained. Of course, after a while with a voice coach to assist, he’d finally feel comfortable enough to do hour-long performances in front of large audiences live. Well, large as in four hundred at most.

…To the place, I belong…

Even with three months of experience, there was always something nagging in his mind about his performance on stage. Nothing is perfect, sure, but why perform if you can’t strive to perfection? He would groan inside his mind in frustration when that voice appeared. Nobody is perfect, you’re doing fine.

…West Virginia, Mountain Mama…

Nobody is perfect.

Everything is fine.

…Take me home, country roads.

It’s just a crush.

He isn’t in love with Keith.

Not at all.

Chapter Text

Kogayne: Hey.

Sharpshooter: Right on time

Sharpshooter: ya good?

Kogayne: Pretty good. Bout to stream, as you know.

Kogayne: Creep (smirking face)

Sharpshooter: pfft. I will yes

Sharpshooter: Oh, yeah! We finally got Jonas, the kid who poured acid over that girl, Helen to apologize, and his parents paid her the cost of the watch

Kogayne: That’s great.

Kogayne: Did it turn into an argument first or

Sharpshooter: sorta but I took care of it [sunglasses emoji]

Kogayne: Can’t imagine it.

Sharpshooter: hm

Kogayne: jk

Kogayne: You must be relieved when he finally admitted defeat

Sharpshooter: Yea

Sharpshooter: oh look at the time I guess its time to watch my favorite streamer redlion

Kogayne: Oh man I love that guy he’s so hot

Sharpshooter: nah hes ugly as hell [vomiting emoji]

Kogayne: Screw you lmao

“Shiro, it’s not like that. Blue’s my crush but he’s just that.” Keith’s voice strained, his fingers fidgeting with his long hair. It wasn’t like he was nervous talking to his brother about his crush. It was like he was nervous talking to his brother about The One.

Keith never expected his likeness of Blue to grow this much. One could blame his constant listening sessions to his beautiful voice – especially after the release of another near-perfect album of acoustic country songs. Especially the ones that ended with “- live performance” laying across his Spotify Liked Songs playlist. He had searched everywhere for some kind of concert Blue hosted, but it came out clean. Nothing about Blue had anything about a live performance, yet the three songs – Country Roads, Longing for You and Deep Southern Blues lingered in Keith’s mind, constantly giving an image of Blue performing in his room, or him being performed by Blue inside his house.

“Sure, buddy. Sure.”

“Shiro. I swear to God.”

Shiro chuckled. “Don’t worry about him. He definitely likes you back.”

“That doesn’t- I’m not- you don’t even know him!” Thank god his brother wasn’t there to see him blushing.

“He’s been texting you for what, ten days now? And you’ve shown me at least eight times how he flirts with you. Jesus Christ Keith, you have to stop blundering like this.”

Keith knew Shiro was not just serious, but horrifying about his love life. Shiro was far from patient after the last time – when he had graduated before he could approach his first every real crush. Yes, both of them remembered Randy, and how much Keith was pining over him, the Texan boy that’d confirmed Keith’s sexual identity and made him a lot more opened and transformed him to a more streamer-like personality. It wasn’t until the final days of his senior year when he finally got the chance to think about a future with Randy and dating that boy.

Of course, things never went the way Keith wanted. They graduated before he could ever approach Randy properly. He moved to South Carolina while his crush moved back home, and that was the end of the story of Randy and Keith.

Okay, he was heartbroken. Keith could admit to that. And he complained to his brother, Shiro every living second after that very terrible miss. And that was why Shiro was going to get Keith to date Blue, no matter how far he lived away from him.

“He’s a fan, Shiro.”

“He’s not just a fan, Keith. You two are pretty much online friends, by now.”

 “Okay, fine.”

“Don’t ‘fine’ me, Keith. You know this is for your own good.”

“If that’s true, then quit bugging me about it, then. I don’t even know his name yet.”

“I won’t. Just trust me, Keith. I have not seen someone text you with this much of an enthusiasm.” Shiro was blunt, as always. And he was right. As always. “You can go all out and cry on me if I’m wrong.”

“Screw you, Shiro.”

“Back at you too, buddy.”

Keith scoffed. They weren’t always at the best of terms, but he knew well that Shiro always meant well. Even he didn’t understand how Keith had to handle his fanbase. He sighed, and looked at the time on his computer. “Times up. I gotta stream. Talk later.”

“Okay. See you. Remember Kei—” He hung up before more damage could be done.

“What am I even supposed to do with him?” Keith muttered, slamming his phone onto his desk and cupping his chin with his own hand before covering his face with it. The only thing he knew about Blue was his looks and his last name. McClain was still an unusual surname for a Cuban.  

Before he could go too deep into guessing Blue’s name, he woke himself up with what seemed like a bad idea that made him feel like a creep, but it felt like he somehow deserved to ask that question.

“Alright, then.” He whispered under his breath.

Kogayne: If you don’t mind, can I ask what’s your name?

Keith’s hand trembled slightly as he hit the send button. Who knows how Blue would react to that?

Sharpshooter: I don’t mind. But you’ll have to earn the answer ;)

Sharpshooter: Guess

Oh no. He’d already begun regretting this.

Kogayne: Can I get a clue?

Sharpshooter: I’ll tell you when you guessed the first letter right ;)

Sharpshooter: and no you cant just type out every letter in the alphabet, also you can only get five guesses a day >:)

Keith groaned. This seemed harder than he thought. The winking faces weren’t helping either.

Kogayne: Michael

Sharpshooter: ill just not say anything if you guessed it wrong

Kogayne: Joe

Kogayne: Franklin

Was he really going to go through the entire alphabet? For nearly a week? What if his name was Xavier, or some crap?

Kogayne: Lester

Sharpshooter: wow you actually got it right the first day

Kogayne: Your name’s Lester???

Sharpshooter: Nope :P, it starts with an L.

Crap. Lance thought. He’s a lot smarter than I thought.

Even then, it would be a good thing if Keith got to know Lance’s name, right?

Right? Well, the answer had to wait, because his stream had just begun.

“Hello chat, welcome back.”

Lance couldn’t suppress his smile anymore. RedLion, or Keith was just too adorable. The stream had just begun, yet Lance had already imagined what he was going to be watching.

“How are you all doing?”

Keith began to read the mass of cheery greetings, and his lips quirked up. He seemed like he had an amazing day going for him. A couple responses to the chat later, GTA 5 was finally open, and was loading. Keith chuckled at some jokes, responded to a few of his viewers while Lance sat by and smiled at that beautiful guy in front of him. His skin looked smooth, maybe even smoother than Lance’s own, and his hair was strangely pretty. Who’d knew that there was a person in the 21^st century that could rock the mullet like that?

 And as the timer started on the screen, Lance rapidly typed in a quick cheer into the chat.

blueishblue: first run of the day good luck keefy!!! (2x lion holding a heart emote)

Luckily for Lance, the streamer looked into the chat, and gave him his intended reaction. What Lance saw was probably the most beautiful things in existence. A smile, growing across Keith’s flush face, his thick eyebrows slightly raising as the smile blossomed into a full-blown grin. The appearance of dimples only enhanced Lance’s experience. He was sure that not even melting into a puddle would stop him from feeling these certain feelings.

“Oh my God, that smile!” A voice came behind Lance. He turned around to see Hunk just arriving home from work.

“What did you do, Lance?” Hunk asked, as the grin became a chuckle, and the cheeks that always looked pale turned red. Keith was visibly blushing, and Lance was the culprit.

“Thanks, Blue.” Keith said, and a stream of excited viewers began to flood the chat.

NessietheLassie: BLUE SECRET CRUSH??????

sekritdokumintz23: (love emoji) bleith

Deefy: WHOS BLUE KEEFY

“Blue’s just a friend, guys.”

Lance could see him begin to try damage control, but nothing could work. Keith wasn’t one to time out, or kick everyone who mentioned anything that had related to his personal life.

Keith’s smile began to falter. And that was when Lance knew his fellow fans had screwed up.

“I—” Keith stammered. “Yeah, he’s someone that I talk to, but he’s not—” A fake laugh. “My boyfriend, or anything.”

Just as he mentioned the word ‘boyfriend’, both Lance and Keith’s eyes were fully wide open, and the streamer looked like his blood had evacuated his face. Lance’s throat began to close up, and sweat was dripping off his forehead. He could feel Hunk being equally shocked as well.

“I- uh.” He looked downwards, before staring into the camera. “I gotta go.”

[STREAMER IS OFFLINE]

“Wow, he’s really into you, huh.”

Lance ignored Hunk, preferring to sit and stare the signature RedLion outro playing on his TV screen. And when he finally processed what happened, it struck to him that Keith was flustered. And he made him fluster. Crap. And somehow, he really liked that.

Sharpshooter: Hey, are you alright?

Sharpshooter: I’m sorry if you feel upset about my comment :)

Sharpshooter: Hello?

“What do I do, Shiro?” Keith whined to Shiro on his phone, covering his eyes in shame. He knew this was very un-Keith, but you can’t help yourself when you’re all smitten.  

“Well, for one, you can text him back.” His older brother replied with an exhausted tone.

“I don’t know what to say. I ended the stream after his comment, man.”

Shiro sighed. “Keith, you already know that he likes you a lot, and he still loves watching you. You really think he’ll just hate you for that?”

Keith gave a long groan.

“You’re not sixteen, Keith. You’re twenty-six. Man up and give him a reply.”

“Alright, I will, I guess.”

“Don’t ‘I guess’ him. Do it. Or maybe don’t. As you said, I should keep my hands off your business.”

“Mr. McClain, are you alright?”

Lance looked like a mess. Barely getting an hour of sleep, he had spent the night wildly swinging between how Keith had reacted after the incident, and what he was going to do if Keith had decided to cut him off. Nothing about any of his ideas were even decent. Perhaps leaving a message that early wasn’t even a good idea, and feelings of regret began to grow all over his body. It even felt wrong to call him Keith. He doesn’t even know Lance’s name!

“I’m fine, Jonathan. Thanks.” Lance forced a smile, which probably seemed too forceful. He could see his more attentive students squint at the mess that was their teacher.

“Now, if you all can flip to page 89 of the textbook, we can see how polymer chains form from alkenes and alkanes.”

Surely Keith will resume streaming like nothing had happened. Some random guy like him wouldn’t stop him from his own job, right?

“Polymers are formed from polymerization, and the molecules arrange themselves into this weird long chain pattern.”

Maybe he should stop watching RedLion for a while? Focus on what was at hand, his job as a teacher?

“There’s two ways of polymer formation, addition and oxidation.”

No, he has to right that wrong. And he was going to do it the one way that he can. Lance never was one to wrong someone that badly. He’d been single his whole life, and not even once did he ever had major drama take over his life. This was the most he thought about someone he’d never even met.

He was going to make a song for Keith.

“Who’s Keith?” A voice woke him up. I said that out loud, didn’t I?

“Oh my God.” He covered his face with the textbook he was holding.

The whole class laughed.

One week later

Kogayne: I’m fine. It just caught me in a surprise.

Kogayne: I overreacted a bit last week. I’m the one that’s supposed to be sorry

Kogayne: It just sorta got to me, I guess haha

What the fuck am I even talking about?

Sharpshooter: That’s a relief. Again im sorry

Kogayne: No, you’re not at fault

Kogayne: Stop saying sorry

A comical grin appeared on Lance. He was just too far gone.

“Welcome back to the Kingdom of Blues and Country, with your boy here, Blue McClain.” Lance began with his signature smile. It has been a week, and although Keith had messaged him yesterday, he still couldn’t not feel guilty about his sudden anxiety attack, and the following five-day break. The stream after the incident was filled with those questions, and Lance could not feel any more angrier at those people.

Lance cleared his throat, and exhaled, hoping that Keith was watching. He stared into his camera, millions of thoughts racing through his mind until he finally managed to open up his mouth.

“This is for the One, whoever and wherever they are.”

Keith was prepared. There was no way Blue was going to make him fluster again. Blue’s first chords began and had set the mood, before letting some synthetic beats fill the background, which Keith was familiar to from the songs of David Bowie and Elton John. He smiled as the guitar quiet down and Blue’s voice began to flood his ears.

Do you feel it? My heart inside my chest, I feel like it’s my quest to find you.

Can you see me? A crazy plan at best, I never even thought that I would like you…

His heart had become molten. Something about Blue’s voice, and his guitar’s vibrations was truly magical. The dreamy music backing up those two up hadn’t helped.

…But maybe, one day. I’ll see you in my arms. Telling me that you’ll stay…

Was this what that so called true love felt like? Being romantically attracted to someone, even if he had never even met them?

…Maybe it’ll be in an airport or we’ll be across a street. But I’ll know that it’s you…

How does someone like him fall in love this easily? Everything felt like it was from a fairy tale or a fever dream.

…you’re the most beautiful thing that I’ve seen…

Keith was stunned, but he knew he couldn’t just let Blue do that to him, and his heart. He scrolled down, clicking on Blue’s donation button.

A few seconds later, the alert appeared, and Keith smiled.

                THE RED ONE donated $300!

Blue’s reaction was almost instantaneous.

“Oh my—" He stammered, stumbling forwards to look closer at that immaculate number. Three hundred dollars as a donation wasn’t anything to just shrug off. “Thank you, K- I mean Red One.”

Keith could see a shade of pink flooding Blue’s cheeks, and grinned mischievously. This was his vengeance.

Lance chuckled. He really was being watched by his crush. RedLion03 was watching his stream and donated 300 dollars. It wasn’t until three seconds later that he’d finally process it.

“Like, really, I can’t thank you enough, man.” He glanced to his chat, which had been full of traffic. Messages from cheers, to questions, to theories.

Elaboar-Ate: Holy shit red???? RedLion???

They were quickly drowned out, though. Until…

RedLion03: That really nice, Blue! I wonder who it is for, though (thinking face)

Lance’s smile was beginning to hurt, and all doubts about making Keith dislike him was out of the window. The chat had become unforgiving after that, and he swore that he knew most of his new viewers from Keith’s streams.

“It’s for anyone’s One.” Lance replied, then exhaling in relief.

RedLion03: You’re such a romantic haha

“Well, it’s my natural talent.” Lance said, following with a chuckle. He wondered what Keith looked like in the present, and smiled even more as he imagined Keith smiling. “Anyway, guys, check out RedLion’s Arusia and YouTube channel. We’re moving on to requests.”

Keith beamed as Blue blushed through his own stream, constantly reminding the adorable boy on screen that he was still watching. While that happened, he noticed that Blue’s viewership had increased tenfold. He told himself to not worry, instead typing in another snarky compliment to send Blue’s way. Keith smiled when he noticed even some of his mods from his chat had arrived. It seemed like someone’s leak had turned into a full-blown hole, and the ship was sinking. Keith was still lost in Blue’s singing, though, and so was most of the new viewers that entered the stream.

Lots-or: holy crap how did I not find you before

Runsdead: you’re amazing blue

“Thank you, runs dead.” Blue giggled. “Thank you to everyone that’s joined. Especially you, Red. I’m a big fan of you, really.”

A warm smile filled Keith with a giddy feeling. He could probably kiss Blue if it weren’t for the Internet running between both of them.  

Kogayne: Leandro

Kogayne: Luke

Kogayne: Liam

Kogayne: Wait, I got it.

Kogayne: Or I hope not. You’re not a Lotor, are you?

Sharpshooter: WTF

Sharpshooter: NO IM NOT NO ONE IS CALLED LOTOR

Keith laughed.

Kogayne: Damn. I was gonna call you tandem lotor heavy chopper

Sharpshooter: sigh

Sharpshooter: whats your fifth guess of the day

Keith quickly dived back into ‘All Boy Names Starting with L’. He eventually ruled out most of them, leaving only one that seemed common enough for the Cuban-South Carolinian, brown-haired boy.

Kogayne: Lance

Chapter Text

Monthly Q&A (December) [1 day ago]

[12K Views]

[2K Likes, 39 Dislikes]

RedLion03 [903K Subscribers]

[Grand Theft Auto 5 playing in the background, face-cam on the bottom right of the screen]

“Hello and welcome to the first monthly Q&A of this channel. For the next twelve months, I will be holding a monthly Q&A, and there will be a full compilation video uploaded in the end of next year. I have questions from my comments, Arusia chat and Twitter, and I will be reading them out, before answering them.”

(0:32) Why RedLion03?

“There was this show when I was a kid, something like voltage, I think. They had these power ranger color coded lions that they rode into battle. Yeah, Voltron, I think it was. The Red Lion rider was my favorite as a kid, so that’s why I chose RedLion.”

[cut]

“As for the 03, there were already three RedLions, so I had to use numbers. Hope you’re happy, other RedLions, but I am the most famous.”

(1:00) What made you speedrun GTA 5?

“I don’t know, really. I just watched a few speedrunning videos of Mario and stuff. Did a few runs on Mario 64. Got the game when it came out on the PC, so I thought, might as well speedrun this, right?”

[cut]

“Oh, I remember. I found out there was a speedrunning community about the game, so I checked it out. And now I’m here.”

(1:21) Are you in a relationship/Do you want to be in a relationship?

“I’m just finding the right person, to be honest with you.”

[cut]

“Again, to be really honest. I’m gay. Big surprise, right?” [chuckle] “I’ve had a few crushes on my classmates back in university. I don’t meet a lot of people, now, though. I’m a big introvert. But again, I hope I do fine the right person for me.”

…

(2:30) What work did you do before streaming full-time?

“I worked in the local Subway, once. Didn’t go so well. Got my engineering degree after that, though, and I opened a garage for bikes. Worked on mine and some others, had some bike enthusiast friends. We drifted off when I decided to close the garage to get into streaming. Can’t say I don’t miss tinkering with bikes, but you can’t have everything in your way, right?”

[cut]

“I also got money from fixing people’s cars in the neighborhood in high school, too. Not big problems like breakdowns, of course. Just indicator lights or wiper malfunctions, all that stuff.”

(2:55) Where do you live?

“Columbia, South Carolina. Although, I was from Charleston, Virginia.”

(3:02) What is your ethnicity?

“Japanese-something. I don’t know my mother’s heritage, since my dad raised me on his own. My brother says she’s German, while my dad says she’s from Scotland. I’m leanin’ more on Scotland, y’know?” [chuckle]

(…)

(5:09) Would you rather live in a spaceship or in an underwater base?

“A spaceship. One, there would be a lot more things to see outside in a spaceship. Two, space probably has a better internet connection than the ocean. Just saying.”

(…)

(6:50)

“And that’s all we got for December. If your question was missed, I’m pretty sure I’ll pick it on January. Alright, goodbye guys.”

[Outro]

“Wait, he lives in Columbia? That means he lives near us!” Hunk exclaimed shortly after pausing the video.

“And he’s gay?!” Lance shouted, before blushing when he noticed Hunk’s smirk.

Chapter Text

“Oh my cheese—” Lance gaped at his computer monitor, glancing at his own name being displayed after the user Kogayne. It really happened. Someone he’d never met knew his name. And it just had to be that man. The one, that he’d found on that rainy night two years ago, when he’d clicked into a video about Grand Theft Auto 5 and its various details throughout its virtual world. The RedLion back then did not have a mullet, though, instead he had a haircut similar to Lance’s. And he wasn’t sure if he preferred non-mullet Keith over the present Keith.

“Hunk!” He shouted towards the kitchen, where his roommate was cooking their dinner.

“What is it, Lance?”

“He guessed it!” Lance shouted gleefully. He felt like that probably slightly scared his roommate.

“What?”

“Keith guessed my name!”

“Holy cheese!”

“I know, right?” He slapped his own knee, slightly wincing from the pain.

Sharpshooter: Can I call you?

Kogayne: Sure. Voice or video?

Sharpshooter: Your choice

[Call from Kogayne]

“Hey.” Keith began, his video feed showing him in his usual studio room, with a slight pink flush on his cheeks, wearing his red jacket and black shirt. “So, Lance?”

Lance sighed. “Yep. You guessed it right.”

A small laugh came out of Lance’s headphones. “Well, now that I look at you, you do look like a Lance.”

“And you look nothing like a Keith.”

“Well, my birthname was Akira, but I changed my name to Keith as soon as I could, since it was my mom who chose Akira for me. Like, my dad hated my name too. He called me—” A sigh came out of Keith, and he began to fluster.

“Called you what?”

“He called me Kogey.”

Lance snorted. “Kogey? Like bogey?”

“Yeah.” He muttered back. “That’s where my brother’s nickname comes from, too. Everyone he knows calls him Shiro, from his middle name Shirogane. He should be grateful my dad didn’t call him Shirey.”

Lance snorted.

“Also, you’re not allowed to call me that. Because if you do, I’m calling you my dad.” Lance could practically see Keith blush over the camera.

“Well, you may call me daddy.” Lance said with a devious smirk.

“No, Lance. Bad. I’m hanging up—”

“Woah, woah, woah, I’m joking.”

“Whatever.” A smile appeared on Keith’s face, something that Lance felt like it’d happened more often recently.

“I’m pretty glad that I get to share that story, to be really honest.”

“Yeah?”

Keith nodded. “It’s really embarrassing but it’s one of the only stories of my dad.” He sighed, and Lance gave out a sympathetic look. “My dad had to work a lot. We never really talked and I sorta hated him back then. Shiro took care of me most of the time, even got me into mechanical stuff in middle school.”

As Keith looked engrossed in his telling of his childhood, Lance was pretty sure he’d been hooked onto him. Even with the nonstop watching of Keith’s content and streams, he was only learning about RedLion’s personal life a few minutes ago. And he was happy that it was the man himself that got to tell the story, instead of some smiley white guy standing in front of a green screen with millions of other viewers beside him. When his attention returned to what his crush was saying, he’d assumed he had already missed half of the story.

“…that one time, Shiro ran into a kid about my age and nearly dropped a whole scoop of ice cream on that poor boy. He stammered while he said sorry, and he was like ‘So sorry, MAN.’ You should’ve seen him use the word ‘man’ like twenty times before he told him his name.” Keith was laughing. It was the most beautiful laugh Lance had heard.

“That’s hilarious.” Lance spoke while giggling nonstop. Keith was practically beaming at Lance’s small laughs.

“Yeah, we also spent like every Christmas talking about stuff like that. Until Shiro left for university.”

Lance nodded slowly. “What’d he study for?”

“Astrophysics.”

“Jeez.” Lance whispered. Nothing like an intimidatingly smart big brother for him to relate to Keith. “I get it, dude. My big brother’s studying quantum physics in Harvard.”

Keith nodded back. “He’s really smart and I was kinda jealous in senior year—but I got over it. He may work in NASA now but I nearly have a million subs on YouTube.”

Lance laughed. “Yeah, you’re much better than some space program employee.”

Keith returned with an even more amazing laugh than before, and Lance was barely resisting from showering that cute boy with compliments and kisses. Too bad he’s separated by a computer screen.

“What did you say?”

Oh. He said that out loud. Fuck.

“Oh, just something about my brother.”

“Yeah?”

“He’s called Marco. Tallest in the family, aced SATs, all that ‘mom’s favorite boy’ stuff. We were pretty good back in high school, but ever since he’s moved to Boston, we haven’t really talked.”

Keith furrowed his eyebrows, seemingly in frustration. “Not even a weekly call, or something?”

Lance shook his head. “He calls in on special occasions, like Mama’s birthday or Thanksgiving—”

“Wait, he doesn’t come back on Thanksgiving?” Keith interrupted, his voice giving out a very attractive amount of passion. He sat up straight, and looked directly at the camera, before loosening up with a shrug. “What a dick. No offense.”

Lance nodded in agreement. “We haven’t met him since the Christmas after his freshman year in Harvard.” And God, did he really miss Marco.

“That really sucks.”

“Well, what about your brother?”

Lance quieted down, letting Keith ramble about Shiro, on how he’d call in every week, always with a worried tone for his little brother, or how he’d already knew about Lance and their friendship just by the tone of Keith’s voice over the phone, or how celebratory he was when Keith had reached five hundred thousand subscribers on his YouTube channel. Shiro really seemed like a brother that everyone never deserved, but needed. A secondary parent figure, standing in for those who lacked one. Lance hoped that Keith was equally as grateful for Shiro as he was for his parents.

After a while, Lance had finally decided on speaking the truth. “I wish we could meet.”

“We can, I mean, well, depends.” Keith said, after being startled by Lance’s sudden statement.

“On?” Lance asked, tilting his head.

“Where you live. You know where I live already.”

Lance mouthed an ‘oh’. “Oak Grove.”

Keith raised an eyebrow. “Really? In Columbia, right?”

Lance nodded. “Why?”

“Because, my high school was in Oak Grove.”

“Like, Oak Grove High School?”

Keith nodded. Something about this conversation gave Lance a shiver up his spine. “You work there, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.” Lance snorted. “What’s that mean?”

“It means… I’m gonna go pick you up after work tomorrow.”

“Oh.”

A smirk grew on Keith’s face. Lance was sure that he’d need to get used to a smirking Keith, because good heavens, that boy was hot. Later, he made a mental note to dress better for work the next morning.

Oak Grove High School had looked much different since the last time Keith had glanced over at it. Many of the buildings had either been renovated or had completely changed, for the better or worse. For one, it didn’t look like it’d just survived Sherman’s March to the Sea, which was a breath of fresh air. But the ugly white concrete building that stood in for the terribly old brick house that was the main building didn’t look any better. Luckily, there was some parts about it that Keith was familiar with. The quad with the statue of some old war hero, or the street cone that stood on top of the tallest building of the school. Although high school wasn’t the best of times for him, Keith could still smile at memories of the place, nearly a decade ago.

But something that’d been even more memorable was the person Keith noticed. Brown skin, brown hair, blue eyes, and that smile. Anyone could’ve recognized him as the Blue – Lance.

“Lance!” He shouted, helmet over his head to not gather any more attention. Attention was probably the main reason why he’d gone out so rarely. Especially after he’d reveal Columbia as his city of residence.

Lance nearly sprinted towards Keith on his bike, completely unaware that the two had been gaining quite an audience around them. Keith swore that he could hear an “Is that McClain’s boyfriend?” He hoped that the question would be a yes in the future.

“I literally took the bus this morning for you. Scared the crap out of me when I couldn’t find your mullet.”

Keith rolled his eyes. “’S not a mullet.”

“Sure. Well it's really nice to meet you, man.”

Keith sighed. Perhaps it was time to cut his hair. “Ditto. Helmet.” He said, passing his spare helmet to Lance.

After Lance had put on the helmet, Keith began with a rev on the engine. “Ready?”

“Yes.”

And they took off, nearly blasting through the busy after-school street. A few minutes of loud whooping later, Lance was finally calm enough to give Keith the way to his home. Even though it was slightly annoying, Lance had reminded him of his first time riding a bike, smiling nonstop while he drove through the countryside at nearly a hundred miles per hour. Some day, Keith thought, he’d be able to have Lance on his back and drive as fast as he could. To where? Anywhere. Keith smiled at that quote. It was the cheesiest line of any road trip romance, sure, but having a bike only made it cooler.

With Lance’s directions, Keith drove through an increasingly familiar route, passing a McDonald’s and a Walmart that was on the way to the school, only passing his own house before Lance gave the signal to stop at the house on the end of his own street. Something had nearly died inside him when he realized how close he’d been living with his own online crush.

“That was really fun. I thought I was gonna die like every five seconds.”

Keith chuckled. “Yeah. You get a newfound appreciation of bike safety after riding bikes in GTA 5. But Lance,” he took a deep breath. “Don’t freak out.”

Lance tilted his head, and raised an eyebrow. “Don’t tell me I have a spider on me.”

Keith chuckled. “No, but my house is right over there.” He said, pointing to the white two-story house that he’d been living in for nearly a year now. "That white one."

“Oh.” Lance responded, his hands over his mouth.

“Yeah.”

“This is like some rom-com shit. How the hell…?” Lance shouted, flailing his arms to emphasize on his point.

Keith snorted. “So is this a date now?”

Lance shrugged. “Yeah, it is.” He said, before laughing. The universe really worked in mysterious ways. It was only a few seconds later that Lance realized what both of them had said.

“Oh my god, Keith.” A smile grew on Keith, as Lance turned into a blushing mess. “That was fucking smooth.”

The smile turned into a laugh. “So, date, wanna go?”

“Well. Seeing that I’d dressed for this occasion.” He said, slightly shifting his blue shirt and green jacket. “Yeah. Let’s go.”

Keith hummed. “Coffee shop or movie?”

Lance hummed along with Keith, before his eyes lit up like a lightbulb had appeared on his head. “You have Netflix, right?”

Keith nodded. “Yeah, why—”

“Pizza, Legendary Defender, blankets, you and me.”

Keith raised an eyebrow. “Legendary Defender? I thought—”

“YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED IT?”

“Uh, no—”

“Alright, we’re going NOW. Keith, get Domino’s on the phone.” Lance began to pull him towards Keith’s house, practically running across the street. “This is an urgent emergency, man. How could you?”

“I haven’t even touched Voltron since like 2009, Lance.”

“And we need to correct that, now.”

Keith grinned as they reached his front door. Lance - Blue, was right next to him on his front door! This was probably the best day Keith could ever ask for.

Chapter Text

“Uh, the name’s Lazuli, we were at the same class in the Galactic Academy?”

Ferrite squinted at the boy pulling Charlie’s other arm, blinking in confusion.

“Oh, you’re an engineer?”

“No, I’m a pilot!” Lazuli exclaimed. “You know, Lazuli and Ferrite, neck in neck.”

Ferrite rolled his eyes. “Oh, you were that transport pilot Char talked about.”

“It’s fighter pilot now, after you left and all that.”

“Well, congratulations.”

“God, look at his smile!” Lance pointed at the paused show, with Ferrite’s small, warm smile filling the screen. “Fer’ obviously has a thing for Lazuli!”

Keith nodded, chuckling. “It’s more visible when you point it out.”

“I cannot believe I didn’t figure it out then and there.” Lance pouted, nearly spitting out bits his pizza as he talked. Gross.

“If you want to talk with pizza in your mouth, can you do it on the sidewalk?”

Lance made a noise, and Keith snorted. “I just vacuumed the carpet, man.”

“This is a date. We’ll vacuum whatever later.” Lance said after swallowing that bite of pepperoni pizza.

Keith gave a slight smile at the we. The very concept of a ‘we’ had already got him all giddy and excited, mainly for the future dates. It was his first date, since ever, but Keith wasn’t a relationship idiot. He has had his fair share of experiences in romance movies and books, thanks to his late teen years and the coincidental discovery of Titanic, which nearly all of his friends had gasped in terror when he had said he never watched it. Keith was really the Internet Explorer of watching movies and shows.

“Alright.” He said, leaning down onto Lance’s shoulder. As he did, he could feel the shoulder he leaned on slump down, before Lance’s head softly landing on Keith’s. He then raised his left arm and wrapped it around Lance’s waist. Warmth spread across his chest and Keith thought that the feeling was probably one of the best things he’d experience.    

“Is this alright?” He whispered.

“Yeah.” Lance replied, placing his right arm on the back of Keith’s neck, feeling the ends of his hair tickle against the arm. The area instantaneously became warm and he felt like he was going to explode. Still, there was only a minute part of him that’d regretted this experience. This was probably his first time in someone – who isn’t his own parents’ – embrace.

---“The felines choose, paladins. Lazuli was chosen by the Blue Leopard when he was found by her.”

“Wait- then how did I sense the Leopard back on Earth?”

The ginger moustache man, who’d name was revealed as Charon hummed. “We will have to dive deeper in search of an answer for you question, Ferrite. But for now, we will have to find three felines. We have kept one – the Black Lion inside the castle. It will only show itself to her paladin once the rest of the felines have been gathered here.”

Char nodded. “So, what are the ones left?”

Aurora, the graceful tan princess with bleached hair raised her hand, interacting with a projection of the Milky Way Galaxy. The projection zoomed into two objects.

“The Yellow Tiger is situated here.” Aurora points to the first object, which seemed to be a moderate-sized planet similar to Earth. “And here is the Green Cougar.”

“So, where’s the last one?” Ferrite asked. “Where’s mine?”

“Weird. There’s nothing about the Red Cheetah showing up anywhere…”

“Keith.” A voice woke him up. “You good?”

Keith opened his eyes, squinting at the source of the voice. Oh, right. Lance. “Yeah,” he muttered.

“You fell asleep there, buddy.”

“Yeah, guess I did. Sorry.”

Lance’s lips really looked attractive at this time of the day. He didn’t even know what time it was.

“It’s fine.” Lance said. His lips were curled up in that signature warm smile. “What are you looking at?” Lance chuckled.

Keith’s eyes began to open up wider. Was he really going to do this? He sat up, and directly faced his partner, who’d been giving off a warm smile to him. Keith mirrored the smile when he realized Lance had been staring at his lips. Who knows what that means, right?

“Can I kiss you?” Keith blurted. Lance began to flush red.

“Oh, uh—” The blushing boy stammered. “Can you?”

Keith chuckled. “May I?”

Lance laughed, and grinned. “Well, actions speak louder than words, right?”

The next thing Keith felt was Lance’s lips sloppily planted on his own. It wasn’t anything but a small peck.

“I see.” Keith smirked. “Guess you do, huh,” and he blushed.

“Yep.”

Then again, Lance’s warm, wet lips became smushed over Keith’s. And Keith, with his fast reaction time, returned the favor after five seconds of processing the present moment. A burst of warmth was felt all over his body when he felt a palm on his cheeks, and a soft muffled moan, which he wasn’t sure if it was his or Lance’s. He wrapped his arms, once again, around Lance’s waist, and he felt Lance’s own arms around his body. The taste of grape chapstick and the smell of lavender sent shivers through his spine, and before he knew it, he’d ended up on the floor with a soft thud, and Lance’s arm pressing on his shoulder. He slightly winced from the pressure, and Lance instantly shot back like a cautious dog.

“Oh, crap, was that too much?” Lance said, his breaths heavy and his cheeks still flushed pink and red.

“No.” Keith smiled. He really was enjoying this too much. “Come back here.”

They kissed again, with Legendary Defender still playing in the background.

“Well, Pascal, all you have to do is trust in yourself. You’re like, the smartest guy among us all.”

Lance could never know how long he’d been waiting for this. Nothing was going to beat this, ever.

“Don’t puke, don’t puke, don’t puke, don’t puke—”

How was he going to live this through? He probably already had a couple of hickeys on his neck already.

“We’ve found the Red Cheetah inside a Zarkonian ship. Bad news is, it’s heading right for us!”

Is it right to love someone right after their first date?

“That was the most tiring first kiss ever.” Lance complained, his whole body sprawled out on the floor.

“You’ve had other first kisses?” Keith asked jokingly. He lay beside Lance, his back against the coffee table.

“Nope. You?”

Keith shook his head. The truth was that if relationships were a job, he wouldn’t even have had a degree for it.

“Really?” Lance asked, surprised. “I’d think you would have like, all the men.”

Keith chuckled. “Being a speedrunner isn’t really sexy.”

“That is fair, but you are sexy.”

Redness flooded Keith. “Lance, Jesus Christ.” He chuckled.

“Can’t lie, you really activated my particle barrier.”

Keith snorted, still blushing heavily. “Really? You’re Lazuli now?”

Lance giggled. “And you’re my Ferrite.”

“Laaaance.” Keith whined. “I hate you.”

“No, you don’t.” Lance said, close to laughing.

“Yeah.” Keith sighed. “I really, really like you.”

 Then, a strange thing happened. “Oh.” Lance said, looking flustered. Apparently neither of them could handle being flirted at. “I- I mean I’ve just been a fan of you for so long, and it’s so weird to see your face and kiss it and all that, I love to just look at you and… watch you.”

“You’re a dork.” Keith snickered, his cheeks straining from how much he’s been smiling. “I guess we can do this a second time?”

Lance shook his head. “I’m bringing you somewhere the next time.”

“Alright.”

“Alright.”

They both burst into laughter. And they both had just only begun to cherish how incredible each other’s laughs are.

Chapter Text

Hunk woke up to total silence, confused. At seven-thirty, if you live with someone like Lance McClain, there would have been loud pop music shaking up the house from the kitchen. Lance was Hunk’s second alarm clock, and even if it was annoying, Hunk could thank Lance for several occasions of preventing a late arrival to his workplace. He wasn’t complaining, though. A morning in peace was always one that’d be valued.

It wasn’t until right before breakfast that Lance would finally appear. It’d been awfully quiet – and while Hunk wouldn’t admit to it – lonely. He had even started to wish that Pidge hadn’t moved out!

“Lance, where the hell have you been?” Hunk asked his weirdly jumpy housemate.

“Just a friend’s house.” Lance replied, leaking out a giggle from his ear-splitting grin. That man couldn’t be a worse liar, even his cheeks had betrayed him with a pink tint all over it. 

“Really?” Hunk squinted, peeking out the living room window to see the same bike he’d seen when he got home the afternoon before. At first, he’d considered calling Lance about the strange motorcycle that he’d never seen, but at his third missed call, Hunk was just going to confront him instead.

“So, whose bike is that out there?” He said, pointing to the red motorcycle that had been sitting on their driveway for a whole night.  

In an instant, the pink flush turned scarlet. “It’s—” Lance stammered, before settling to a smile. “I don’t know.”

Hunk sighed. However bad a liar he was, you could never crack the truth out of Lance. His last ‘surprise’ birthday party proved that after he’d returned home from work to decorations that he’d already seen Lance buy a month ago, with Lance desperately pleading him to act surprised when the others arrived. Pidge, on the other hand, was laughing her ass off. That was still one of the best birthday parties he had ever experienced, though. Sorry, Mom. He thought, as an ugly portrait of Sonny from Legendary Defender was seen painted with frosting on a large rectangular cake.

“Whatever.” Hunk shrugged. It was just a bike, after all. Unless it was Lance’s, it wasn’t his business at all. Until…

Kogayne: Right. My bike.

Okay, Hunk didn’t mean to spy on whoever Lance speaks to on Discord, yet he’d been making it too easy for Hunk to see. Lance hadn’t even kept the fact that he’d been best online friends with RedLion for nearly two months a secret. But things had been gotten weird for Hunk, though. For one, Lance had never been this chipper and giddy since his twenty-first birthday, constantly fidgeting his phone and always having his mind off something else. Secondly, how the hell hasn’t he gotten tired of talking about RedLion? Well, he has to admit, he’s been equally as big of a fan for Red, but still. All of that had already gotten Hunk really suspicious of his roommate.

And that was why this was one hell of a revelation.

“HOLY CRAP, LANCE!” Hunk screamed. “That’s Red’s bike?!”

Lance’s face turned white as his body went back to his flustered trance, slamming the power button of his monitor and nearly tripping himself while he got off his chair. “Oh, sh-cheese.” He mumbled.  “Y-yeah, when I said I wanted to take the bus to work, th-that’s…” Lance trailed off, chuckling nervously. “Yeah…”

Oh. “He picked you up from the school?” Hunk’s heart was racing. He really just had a chance to meet his Arusian idol, and he missed it?

Lance sheepishly nodded. “We… sorta… dated…?”

Hunk’s jaw was definitely on the floor, and his eyes probably have been popped out from how open they were. A strange feeling coursed through his body, something like excitement.

“Buddy, you’re kidding me, right? That’s like… a fake?”

Lance shook his head, his lips curling up until it began to look like it hurt.

“Dude, you’re dating RedLion?!” Hunk shouted, gripping Lance’s arms and shaking him. All he got from RedLion’s potential boyfriend was a laugh. That laugh was infectious, and Hunk snorted out a chuckle before it evolved into a laugh.

“Oh my cheese.” Hunk said, gripping his stomach. His legs gave out as he dropped on the floor, wheezing between his laughter. “My roommate is dating RedLion Zero Three.”

“Yep, I am.” It seemed like it only dawned on Lance right then and there. “I’m dating him. I’m dating THE RedLion.”

“You have to tell me what happened.”

Again, with his blushing face. Lance started on Keith with his bike, picking up Lance to speed through the neighborhood, heading to their street, and when they’d arrived at Lance and Hunk’s—

“You mean that RedLion stays literally a few houses away?”

“Yeah!” Lance shouted, throwing up his arms. “I told him this was like a rom-com, and he asked if this was a date, and I said yes, Hunk. I SAID YES.”

“That was smooth.” Hunk commented. He’d expected Lance to make that move, but apparently, RedLion was equally a good flirt.

Lance continued. Their date was what neither of them had even predicted, even with the utter hopelessness of how romantic Lance was. Pizza, Netflix, Keith’s couch and a blanket. Then, Lance’s first kiss, which he’d specifically remembered Pascal getting his – well, her – Green Cougar out of the tropical paradise with the one and only Char.

“I’m never going to be able to watch episode two without thinking about kissing him.”

“You know what? You’ve ruined LD for me.” Hunk quipped.

“Screw you.” Lance laughed.

“I swear, there’s like three more seasons, and I cannot bear to watch another one without imagining you and Red—”

“Goddamnit, Hunk!” Lance shouted, burying his face in his palms. Hunk had burst into laughter. “You’re so gross, dude.”

“You’re the one that’d kissed him.”

Lance grunted. “I’m just gonna go.”

“And don’t think I forgot about how smitten you were to him, Lance!”

“Okay, Hunk!” Lance said, before slamming his room’s door shut. Hunk laughed again, a wave of excitement taking over him as he imagined Keith Kogane, splayed out on their couch, holding hands with his own roommate.

Holy. Crap.

Keith couldn’t help but laugh when he’d received a message from Lance, only an hour after that date of his had left and returned home. And Lance didn’t even need a ride – they lived about a minute away from each other.

Sharpshooter: Haven’t you forgotten something?

Right. His bike.

Lance’s house wasn’t nearly as big as Keith’s. Yet, it looked like it was more comfortable to live in than the dry white paint that Shiro and him had applied to his house. He really should have made it brown, at least. The pale orange applied on the single-story house, with the sudden bright red on the garage door had made Keith envious of whoever that lived there. Luckily for him, he’s dating that person.

As Keith’s bike roared into life, a man in a brown and yellow hoodie appeared from Lance’s front door, someone he hadn’t recognized. The man beamed at Keith, waving his arm at him.

“Red!” The man shouted. Keith guessed that he was a fan, and Lance’s supposed roommate. The man seemed to have a warm feeling off his voice, giving him an aura of pleasantness to Keith.

“Hi.” Keith responded, raising an eyebrow.

“You’re RedLion, right?” The man asked, breathing heavily, probably from excitement and the fact that he’d launched himself towards Keith and his bike with a fast run.

“Yeah. You’re a fan?”

“I’m a huge fan, man. My roommate and I watch your streams all the time.” Keith smiled. There was never a bad moment where he was able to meet a fan. Well, outside of those toxic ones. “Oh, yeah, you’re dating my roommate, right?”

“Oh my God. He told you?”

The dark-skinned man chuckled. “Lance is really bad at keeping secrets from me. But you can trust me and him with it, he’s really stubborn when it comes to secrets.”

“Thanks, er…?”

“Hunk.” He said, giving out his right hand, which Keith gladly took and shook it.

“Hunk, Lance’s roommate.”

Hunk nodded. “Yep.”

“Nice to meet you. We’ll probably be seeing each other a lot.”

Hunk chuckled. “Honestly, I can’t wait.”

“Thanks, man.” Keith said, before he spun several more revs, and took off, narrowly missing his house. Something inside him had just shouted fuck it. He’s dating somebody, for God’s sake! He deserves a drive throughout the city.

Downtown was beautiful, in a way. It wasn’t like Charleston, a small-ish town compared to Columbia, nor was it like the massive sprawl that was Washington DC or New York. It was… Columbia. Keith’s city. Which was, as he’d recently just found out, his own big, massive, mutual crush’s city. Somehow, Keith felt like anything that had Lance in it, was going to be his favorite.

Columbia, oh Columbia.

Keith couldn’t help but laugh.

RedLion had never been so smiley and carefree about his stream. Sure, there were those days, like the yearly occurrence of his birthday and his brother’s birthday, yet as Ben logged on Arusia on his phone, right in the middle of his chemistry class, the appearance of Keith Kogane with a wide smile introducing himself to his audience was nothing but a surprise. A welcome one, indeed.

Not long after Keefy (Everyone knows it’s a ridiculous name, although every RedLion fan calls Keith that) had started his first run of the day, Ben’s teacher had a stern face on him.

“Mister Richards, do you mind? I’m drawing plastic and you’re watching a livestream.”

Ben stammered at first from the chuckles that came out of his classmates, but he’d already gotten out a quick quip before his teacher could say ‘confiscate’.

“I’m sorry, Mr. McClain. RedLion is just far more interesting than the synthesizing of polyethylene.”

Strangely, though, it was a smirk that came out of Mr. McClain. The chemistry teacher was one of those fun ones you were able to joke around with. But you’d think that the teacher would at least roll his eyes at some random streamer on Arusia.

“Oh, I’m sure.” Mr. McClain replied. “Anyway, this is the structure of polyethylene…”

 Things only got weirder, though.

Right as the bell rung, both Ben and his teacher pulled out their phones. At first, Ben thought that McClain was about to text something to someone work related, but a smile blossomed on him.

No one smiles like that unless they have a crush. Not even a teacher. His teacher was acting strange, and Ben was sure that it had something to do with RedLion.

But what Ben hadn’t realized, was the user blueishblue had joined the livestream, coincidentally only seconds after chemistry class had ended. Well, hundreds of people watch Red's stream every day. So was blue something special? Or was it just a coincidence?

Chapter Text

[Blue smiles at the requested song by PurpleSnakeAU]

Blue: Lucky, by Jason Mraz, huh.

[Blue opens the YouTube music video of said song, and listens to snippets of it. Blue begins to beam at the song as he listens to more of it and reads its lyrics]

Blue: This is a duet song. Sorry, Purple. Maybe next time. [Wink]

[Blue giggles] Blue: Oh man. Sorry, it just- reminds me of someone.

PurpleSnakeAU: Oh, does it?

[Blue nods]

PurpleSnakeAU: Of a certain feline... that's...

Blue: Purple-

PurpleSnakeAU: I'm kidding. Okay, do my song.

[Laugh]

Blue: I can't believe you listen to pop songs.

Blue: Your song? What- Oh.

Blue: Well.

Keith couldn't help with his dumb grin. He knew he'd missed a streaming session, which was a first. There could only be one person, one thing that could distract him from his schedule, honestly. And it was the person on his screen. BlueishBlue. Lance McClain. 

I hope you don't mind,

I hope you don't mind,

That I put it in words...

How wonderful life is when you're in the world

Chapter Text

Keith’s closet was regrettably nothing but t-shirts and tank tops, everything from either high school or that period of his life where he hadn’t had human contact in months, if not a year. Keith’s job didn’t require a social life, and he’d took nearly everything unnecessary out as he began a life of a streamer. Yet today, he was struggling to find a reason as to why his closet was so goddamn miserable.

As he dug through his pile of old clothes, Keith had begun to settle with an image of what he really was gonna wear. First thing Lance would see is his old varsity jacket, proudly wearing the emblem of his school’s football team. Go Marmoras! He thought, smirking at the large, bold nine below his last name. Under the jacket was just another black t-shirt. Dull. Yeah, Keith knows.

And at last, his best chance at impressing Lance – his denim jeans that looked at least intact and clean. He had begun to regret pouting at his parents in junior year for making him buy jeans, looking at how little his choice of jeans were.

God, he was smitten. He thought, slightly blushing. Keith’d never dressed up this much since Shiro’s wedding. And honestly, he looked ridiculous. The varsity jacket was stained, from when he’d spilled Pepsi all over it and the numerous times he’d get it dirty from the many fights he’d been in, while his jeans looked partially like it was from a millennial hipster’s wardrobe – worn, slightly torn and a tad bit tighter than Keith would admit. It wasn’t like he’d gotten fat since graduating. Well, it was, but… yeah.

“Huuuunk…” Lance whined, pulling out his umpteenth hoodie from his over-stuffed dresser. Hunk had smugly nagged him about throwing out his old clothes, and Lance had reacted with his nearly signature phrase of “That’s shirt abuse!” before slapping Hunk in the arm. Hunk laughed, before throwing the latest rejected hoodie onto the heap of clothes on his bed. Don’t worry, he’d already prayed for forgiveness on how much of a mess his room had become.

“Lance, this is your second date.” Hunk sighed. “You don’t have to be all formal.”

“You don’t get it, Hunk. This is like, the first official date.”

Hunk groaned yet again. “You’re hopeless.”

“Only the best for the people I love.” Lance replied with a fake smile.

It took nearly fifteen minutes for Lance and Hunk to finally settle on a blue and white combo – a denim jacket with a plain white shirt underneath, complimented by some skinny jeans. Luckily for Lance, he’d only tore off the price tags of these clothes a month ago. He was also lucky for one other thing: the fact that Keith would probably turn out worse than him. Although, he wouldn’t count on it. Keith could probably rock a tank top and a pair of boxers.

Now that was something Lance didn’t want to imagine. His little gay heart was just about ready to explode. Shit.

When Keith had picked Lance up, the guy looked nearly perfect to Keith. The ever-present blue eyes, those freckles that Keith was proud to notice before they had even met. When Lance got on his motorcycle, he was able to feel his cool skin on Lance’s. God, that smooth skin. It was no wonder that Lance was so obsessed with his skincare routine. Adding onto his attractiveness, there was no more denying that skinny jeans were Lance’s thing, and Keith definitely wasn’t staring at Lance’s ass whenever they were standing up.

And when they arrived, it was Lance that gave a small peck.

“…why?” Keith asked.

“Just because.” Lance said with a smile. Keith’s face turned scarlet.

The café they’d chosen over Discord messages was nothing like they’d imagined. The ceiling was painted black with random stripes of purple, vents and wiring fully on display. The same could be said with the walls, and the menu was written – well – half-written, half-drawn on a blackboard. The only thing that felt warming in the place was probably the display case of their pastries. Well, to be fair to Keith, Lance's choice of a McDonald's, an already-closed cafe in a mall, and a dirty diner that Keith'd been to since middle school wasn't better either.

The mood itself wasn’t that awful, though. The counter, for one, had a neon outline to it, and the phrase ‘Knowledge or Death’ written on the front of the counter. Keith imagined it was some edgy quote picked out by the resident edgy teen. An aroma of sweetness mixed with the smell of roasted beans and cocoa definitely made the café, though. It was extremely familiar, just like the clanking of silverware and coffee cups or the low humming that coffee machines made seconds after each customer had place an order that contained caffeine. It was one final thing – the comfortable warmth of the air conditioning that had captured Keith into the shop.

“Oh my God.” Lance said, as they queued up the counter. “This place is like, the Hot Topic of cafés. Keith, this is perfect for you!”    

“Screw you, Lance.” Keith chuckled, before giving out a slight pout. “Google Maps said this place was romantic.”

“Well, Keith, you could’ve guessed how romantic it was at the Blade of Marmora Café.”

Keith sighed. “Whatever.”

“You know what? I like it.” Lance’s lips curled into a warm smile, and Keith’s heart fluttered. “This is perfect for our first, official date.”

“I thought this was our second date?”

Lance snorted. “Netflix and Chill isn’t a second date.”

“Really? I thought it was.”

“Nope.”

Keith shrugged. “Guess you’re just more romantic than me.”

“You’re right, I am.”

“Yeah, you are.” Keith smiled, as he leaned in to kiss Lance’s cheek, which nearly right after had burned up from the touch.

“Yeah- I… yeah.” Lance seemed flustered, as he attempted to look away from Keith. It was probably one of the most adorable things he’d seen. Second from puppy huskies. Okay, just above puppy huskies.

Keith laughed. “Oh God, you’re so cute.”

“Shut up.” Lance pouted, and Keith grinned like a teenager in love.

By the time the queue had cleared, the two had already been grinning and blushing to no end, and Keith had hoped that none of the café’s other patrons knew who they were.

“Welcome to the Marmora Café.” The barista, whose nametag read Ulasz greeted Keith and Lance with a deadpan, monotone voice. Keith could almost relate to that poor teenager in a purple polo uniform with a near-scowl, being an ex-Subway worker himself. “May I take you order? We have a few specials right now.”

Lance hummed, while Keith had already gotten a drink in his mind. “I’ll have a Jambiya Mocha. Extra sugar.”

“Extra sugar? Really, Keith?” Lance made an exaggerated face of disgust.

Keith rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I like my coffee sweet.”

He wouldn’t deny it, Keith had a sweet tooth. Half of his groceries were sweets, junk food and soda. Shiro, being the annoyingly responsible big brother, would lecture Keith, yet Keith would continue bringing in his candy. And when Keith had moved out, the floodgates were swung open. That probably was the reason why his jeans were suffocating his legs.

“You’re gross.” Lance commented, before finally deciding on his drink. “A medium latte, please.”

From the window outside, the café’s seating area was quite different than what Keith had imagined. It felt even more different when he’d seen it from the counter area. The whole place was lit up primarily by daylight, with a faint, dim yellow light taking its place within the inner areas. On the walls were several unusual paintings, as well. Some looked like they were from a science fiction novel, while one looked like a sloppily made knockoff of Van Gogh’s café painting. It definitely looked out of place.

They settled on a booth on the far side from the counter, as close to the innermost corner of the shop as possible, which Lance stated was “romantic enough, at least”. 

And Keith’s drink? He’d always liked the mixture of chocolate and coffee. It was one of the things he’d remembered his mother for as a child. The mocha was warm, bitter and very, very sweet, just how he liked it. But as he finished enjoying his first sip of the hot drink, he was practically jealous of Lance’s latte. His date looked more like he was eating pure pleasure, rather than the milk-coffee mix. Keith was glad that Lance wasn’t a moaner. Well… not that he knew Lance wasn’t…

“This place actually has good coffee.” Lance said with a surprised look.

Keith nodded in agreement.

“I’m guessing you like anything with like, ninety percent sweetness.”

Keith snorted. “I won’t deny it.”

Lance scoffed playfully, crossing his arms. “You’re lucky you’re so cute.”

“Yeah.” Keith said as a slight blush flushed over his cheeks. “And that’d mean you’re even more luckier than me, because,” Lance raised an eyebrow.

“Because you’re dating this cutie right here.” Keith nearly purred.

“Gah-Fu- Don’t do that!”

Keith chuckled. I love you. “You’re adorable.”

“Let’s just settle at we’re both adorable.”

Keith nodded. He could be used to smiling this much, honestly.

“Shiro.” A voice spoke right as Shiro had answered it. Luckily for both of them, Shiro’s lunch break had only started. The lunch room at the Kerberos Laboratories wasn’t a luxury to be in, but it was comfortable enough for Shiro to come in for lunch every weekday.

“Keith, what’s up? Did you do what I told you to?” Shiro said, unwrapping a burrito he’d brought to work.

“I think I found him.”

“Found who?” Shiro asked.

“That special someone.”

Shiro really could hear Keith smile. “This Blue guy?”

“Oh man, how’d you even know?” Keith asked, dramatically between his giggles.

“Well, I definitely know it’s him now.” Shiro smiled. It was probably the first time he’d seen Keith be so happy. The noise that kept coming out of Keith definitely made his day. A sort of sniffle, partnered with a light snort. You’d hear it from an eight-year-old attempting a prank call.

“I’m so gone for him, man. So, his name’s Lance McClain. And he’s a teacher in my old school. Can you imagine that?!”

“Yep, you definitely are gone for him.”

A tiny chuckle came out of Shiro’s speaker. “Are you okay?” Shiro asked.

“I’m amazing, Shiro! Oh my God. I’m dating someone!” Keith’s voice cracked, as he said.

Shiro chuckled. “I’m proud of you, Keith.”

“Thanks, Shiro.” His little brother replied, reminding Shiro of their childhood. Well, Keith’s childhood, and his teenhood.

“You’re welcome, buddy. Also, I’m definitely going to need to meet the guy that's made my brother a smitten mess.”

“Shut up- I mean, of course.” Keith gave out another chuckle. “I guess you’re busy?”

“No.” Shiro shook his head, before he realized Keith couldn’t see him. “It’s lunch break.”

“Ah. So, how’s work?”

“So, McClain, how was the date?” Hunk said, with his signature ‘you-went-out-with-someone-and-you-need-to-tell-me-what-happened’ smirk.

“It was great.” Lance replied with a smile. It wasn’t as strong as the one he’d made right after he’d returned from Keith’s. It didn’t feel like he was riding the honeymoon tide, like the one that he’d worn, returning from his first few dates with That-One-Girl-That-Shan’t-Be-Named (it was Nyma. That bitch).

“Really, Lance.” Hunk stated.

Lance nodded.

“C’mon, buddy. How was it? Be honest.” Hunk approached Lance, patting a hand on Lance’s shoulder.

“It really was great… I’m just nervous.” Lance looked down, for the first time in weeks.

“Talk to me, Lance.”

Lance sighed. “I’m just overthinking, y’know. Keith’s like, the Redlion, and I’m like, a nobody. And it’s not like I have a good history on dating either. Just look at N—”

“That crapsack relationship was her fault, Lance. You know it.”

“Yeah, but—”

“Lance. No buts.” Hunk asserted. It was one of the advantages of being taller and larger. “It wasn’t your fault it ended like that. Keith chose you. He likes you.” Hunk pointed towards Lance’s chest. “You won’t ruin it. Trust yourself, and be honest to yourself.”

Lance’s sincere, warm smile surfaced once again. “Thanks, Hunk.”

“This is only your second date, buddy. Just believe in yourself, and believe in whatever magic luck that brought you two together.”

“Alright.” Lance chuckled. A small pause of silence occurred right after, as Lance slowly went in for a hug. Hunk happily gave Lance his embrace, and Lance hummed, satisfied.

“So, can I meet him?”

Lance snorted. “He literally lives right across the block, Hunk.”

“Oh, crap, that’s right!"

Chapter Text

It was a dreary morning on the second period on a Monday, when Ben and his classmates had settled down for the first chemistry class of another boring week. Really, who decided that February was only going to have ONE day off school? And it just had to be on a Sunday?! He could see that most of the other kids were equally annoyed, if not tired with a sleepy scowl, even on the second class of the day.

But when Mr. McClain marched into his own classroom late, still on his phone, whistling some happy song and cheerily greeting him and the other tenth-graders, Ben couldn’t help but feel jolly about the day. He hoped that his teacher would keep the mood up throughout the day, because he really was tired as hell. There wasn’t any sugarcoating that.

“So, class, today…” Mr. McClain paused, seemingly distracted by someone texting him. Teachers? With girlfriends, acting like he was one of the students? “We move onto Chapter Twenty, on page two-hundred and five…” The distracted teacher trailed off, grinning at what seemed like another message popping up.

It really seemed very un-teacher like, and when Mr. McClain finished typing out something – probably a quick snarky quip to a flirty line – the teacher acted like he didn’t just PDA the hell out of his students, beginning the lesson of fractional distillation.

Of course, you couldn’t text someone this excitingly without earning some questioning looks, especially by a crowd of fifteen and sixteen-year-olds. Murmurs could be heard as Mr. McClain happily begun his lesson with another drawing of his, which couldn’t be described less than beautiful. Ben was sure that whoever the teacher was texting would definitely agree without hesitation.

Kogayne: Aren’t you supposed to be in class?

Sharpshooter: Oh babe, nothing can bring me from texting you, especially pre-stream

Sharpshooter: Especially since this is a Monday, no one gives a crap

Kogayne: Now that sounds like my high school.

Kogayne: Anyway, pick you up at one?

Sharpshooter: yessir

Kogayne: Okay. You should get off now.

Sharpshooter: I really should, should I?

Sharpshooter: Oh, yet I couldn’t resist speaking to this impossibly beautiful boy…

Kogayne: Shut up

Keith chuckled. He usually never streamed in mornings, especially on a Monday morning, where the night before was probably a session of Domino’s, beer and Netflix in his empty house, pondering about ideas for his streams and additional content on YouTube that might prove to be popular. After all, content creation on the Internet was much more difficult than anyone could’ve imagined.

Just imagine catering towards a crowd of children, teens, young adults and older fans that would prefer your older videos. Keith himself was glad that streaming, and only changing his formula temporarily, worked in his favor.

And that was why when two-hundred viewers entered his stream on nine in the morning, there were a ton of questions, but only one answer.

“I just felt like it.”

Keith was lying, of course. Firstly, he didn’t drink nor eat junk food on Sunday night. Perhaps it was the fact that his spirits couldn’t be higher, and he felt like he was on the top of the world, but when he woke up on that morning, he couldn’t have embraced the morning Sun better.

Secondly: He couldn’t stream on the afternoon, not when he was going to spend all of the latter half of the day with his first ever… date? Partner? Boyfriend…? It was going to be their fifth date, and Lance had promised that he was going to plan something to “romance his socks off” (“I don’t even wear socks indoors,” Keith replied). Maybe it really was the time for Keith to pop the question.

The fifth date wasn’t what Lance had been planning when he was a hopeless teenager, nor was he even counting by their third, which was a visit to the nearby mall and a dinner in a McDonald’s. Not really one that Lance thought was romantic, but it was good enough, right? There was the third-date first kiss, which he’d already spoiled on the first time they’d even met, the café date, which had given Lance a chance to discover the beauty of a knife-themed café, and finally a movie date. He was pretty sure that Netflix counted.

And so, when Keith asked for what they were going to do on their fifth time meeting up together, Lance promised Keith with the second season of Legendary Defender.

“And here I was thinking you were gonna romance my socks off.”

Lance sighed. Okay, he did really try to think of a place, alright? “There’s no place that accepts dinner reservations two hours in advance. I didn’t really think that through.”

“Hey, it’s alright. But if we’re watching at my place, we gotta have movie popcorn, we gotta.”

Lance smiled. God, Keith was just pure greatness. “Yep. Can you get some from the mall?”

“’Course. Salt or caramel?”

“Caramel, duh.”

“Hey! Salty popcorn is good too!”

Lance scoffed. “An extra sugar guy like you, enjoying something other than caramel?”

“It’s different! Caramel’s more bitter…”

Lance could hear the pout coming from his phone.

“Okay, fine. Caramel it is.” He said, before muttering, “And they say I’m a sweet tooth.”

When they had begun watching, Lance had finally realized what reeled him in in the first place. Keith was lying on Lance’s lap, not complaining at all about how his hair was being brushed by Lance’s own fingers. He was facing away from Lance to watch the show, but Lance knew that the man was smiling. And even in jeans, Keith had curled his legs up into an adorable position, which definitely looked uncomfortable. Not for his p- boyfr- Keith, though.  

Keith was, nothing but perfect. The way he laughed, the way he joked around, and the way he loved. All of it was inside this once-asocial, introverted man with a closet full of black t-shirts (Lance hadn’t known, but he was sure of it) with a death-inducingly adorable pout, which not even Hunk could resist, when Keith was late to a party and Hunk threw out his portion of food. It was more than that, though.

He would let you know if he was upset, yet he wouldn’t ruin your day.

He loved listening to Lance, no matter if it was on stream when he sang or when he talked to his small, but growing audience; or when Lance was rambling about his workplace, on text, on call, in person. Especially in person. That little smile that grows as Lance speaks enthusiastically about anything was going to be his death.

So, what was he? A date? A crush? Would he dare to call him his?

It was the second-to-last episode of Season Two, after a pizza and two beers that both of them were nearly passing out from exhaustion. The only thing that kept him up was what to call the thing between him and Keith. It was the man himself that had suddenly shocked him awake, though.

“Lance…” Keith spoke softly and groggily. “Lance.”

Lance only turned his head towards Keith, who now was slouching on the couch, barely hanging onto his can of beer. “What’s up?”

“Are we boyfriends?” Did Keith just read his mind?

Lance’s eyes were forced wide open. He made a slight choking noise, while pushing himself up to a better position for ‘the boyfriend talk’.

“I- I mean, if you want- but if you’re asking me, then- then…”

Keith grinned. His eyes still looked glassy, but probably was more that it literally was eleven at night, and you do not want to mess with his sleeping schedule. “Yes, I do want that. That’s why I’m asking.”

Lance felt warmth all over him. Maybe it was just the alcohol, but not even the most gullible side of him could believe that. He had the same giddiness of a teenager with asking out his crush for prom.

“Oh my god, we’re boyfriends.”

“We are.” Keith snickered. “I have a boyfriend.”

“I have one too!” Lance cheered, and literally bounced up from the couch to dive into Keith. In hindsight, it did sound like a good decision. But when he dropped onto Keith, someone (not him, definitely) miscalculated his weight, and dragged the other person onto the floor. Lance nearly hit his head on the coffee table, while Keith was flushing as he pinned Lance down, like one of those awkward “we’re-best-friends-but-I-wanna-kiss-you-so-badly” positions. One thing was different, though. He was able to kiss Lance, and Lance quickly returned the favor.

The smell of Keith was never going to be less exciting. Keith’s lips tasted like tomato paste, mozzarella cheese and garlic, and each soft moan and groan released a breath that shouldn’t have been hot, yet it was. Alcohol, the pungent smell of pizza and garlic knots. Lance was sure that Keith was having the same experience.

But just when it was getting good, Lance’s heart choked as Keith’s lips were being pulled apart by none other than Keith himself.

“Ugh.” Keith groaned, fanning the air around his nose. “Your breath, jeez.”

Lance furrowed his eyebrows. “Seriously? Have you even smelled yours? You have like, the sample taste for monkey breath.”

“Gross, don’t say that.” Keith said, giving a mock frown.

“Well, it’s true.”

“Then why didn’t you stop us from… you know.”

Lance blushed. “I like it.”

“Huh?”

“I like when you have bad breath.” Lance muttered. “Like, pizza, garlic, beer, whatever—”

“Lance, what— don’t tell me you have a burp fetish or some crap.”

“NO!” Lance stammered. “It’s- it’s not a fucking fetish it’s just…”

“You like kissing people with bad breath.”

Lance nodded sheepishly. “I mean… just pizza breath.”

“Okay.”

“This sounds really stupid, doesn’t it?”

Keith chuckled. “It does.”

Lance sighed.

“So, should I eat a clove of garlic the next date?”

Lance snorted. “No. God, no. Just- no.”

“Okay, fine.”

“Yeah, fine. Fine. It’s, uh, fine.” Lance forced a grin.

Keith chuckled.

After a while, they’d settled back to cuddling, Lance’s legs were tangled with Keith’s, and one of his arms were around Keith’s waist, while most of his body weight was supported by his shoulder pinning Keith’s right arm, which probably he and the charcoal haired boy would regret a few minutes later. Halfway through the final episode, when the team had just begun to fight the mighty Galra Imperium, Keith began to speak once again.

“Lance.”

Lance responded with a light peck on the cheek.

Keith smiled. “You know, my night would have been much more boring without you.”

“Yeah. What would you do?” Lance asked.

“Pizza, beer, Netflix.”

Lance smiled. “Isn’t that what we’re doing right now?”

Keith snorted. “Oh my God, yeah!” He said, before giving out two huffs of laughter.

Now, Lance has never really heard laughter from every human in this Earth, but he was sure that Keith had the most beautiful one of them all. There wasn’t even anyone worth comparing to his. He looked at Keith, who’d been smiling all day with a wide grin of his own.

“What?” Keith said, blushing.

“You’re cute.”

The tint of redness on Keith’s face began to darken. “I hate you.”

“No you don’t.”

Keith sighed, and Lance laughed. Sometimes, he really did feel like a teenager in love.

Keith woke up to a Lance McClain sprawled all over his bed, with an arm over his face and a leg tangled between both of Keith’s. The morning was quite young, and Keith could see the hazy sunlight spilling into his room between the gaps of the room’s blackout curtains.

A quick turn to the right gave him the time from his alarm clock sitting on his nightstand. Eight o’ five, not too early, not too late. But as more of his brain began to wake up, he remembered that Lance was a teacher.

“Uhh… Lance, wake up.” He muttered, before he cleared his throat. “LANCE. YOU’RE LATE.”

Two more shouts later, and the very late high school teacher finally stirred from his sleep. Keith was just glad that he could finally breathe after having an arm on his chest for the whole night. Well, he couldn’t complain, even if Lance was a sprawler, he was great to fall asleep with. Even with his lack of padding, Keith had already named him his human body pillow.

But anyway… back to the teacher who’s late to class.

“Lance, come on. It’s eight in the morning.”

The man himself looked around with a confused face, before settling on Keith’s own eyes. Somehow, Keith began to blush.

“It’s Tuesday morning.”

“Uh- Oh.”

“Yeah. Oh.”

Lance snorted, before nearly squashing Keith’s ribs while he pulled himself up from the bed, and ran towards the bathroom, where Keith heard several questionable noises before Lance rushed out of it with a comb stuck to his head. By then, Keith had only got his legs on the floor, smiling while he heard his boyfriend stumble into his living room downstairs.

And not long after, Lance was finally calm enough for Keith to look into his perfectly blue eyes, giving him a smile, which was returned with an even warmer, more adorable one.

“Come on, I’ll bring you there.”

“Oh sh—” Lance cursed quietly when his postman bag nearly fell from his shoulder. “Ah, you really don’t have to, Hunk’ll—"

“I want to, Lance. Come on, the bike’s faster than your bucket-ass car, anyway.”

“Don’t you insult Blue.” Lance pouted as he took his helmet and put it over his head.

Keith snorted. “You name your car Blue?”

“Whatever.”

Before Keith knew it, they were racing through the main street. And only a few minutes later, the all too familiar sight of Oak Grove High School finally approached them as Keith slowed to a halt on the entrance to the school. The surrounding footpaths and walkways were empty, as expected, and it would be a horror to see for any student or teacher that suspected one’s lateness. This definitely included Lance.

“I am so fucking late.” Lance muttered, before getting off with a slight hop. “Thanks for the ride, babe!” He shouted.

At that point, Keith was very glad that he wore a helmet.  

Following that fateful evening of pure happiness, Keith was disappointed when Lance’s work had begun piling up more throughout the week. It was only a few weeks before spring break would start, and from what he had heard from Lance along with what he had remembered from his four years in Oak Grove, he wouldn’t be texted much from his boyfriend due to his nemesis – Semester-End Exams.

Throughout the week though, they would call each other, either before Keith’s streams or during one of Lance’s long evenings and nights of taking on his work, Keith being one of the main factors for Lance drooling all over a specific Benjamin Richards’ chemistry homework about the effect of acids on polymer substances. He really didn’t think that his flirty voice was that soothing, really, he swears!

And although they hadn’t met the few days after their relationship has gone official, Keith wouldn’t have to wait long for him to have another date going with his new boyfriend. The long four days with no contact with each other ended with a little call from Lance to the bored Keith.

“Keithy boy, are you free for dinner tomorrow?”

Keith smiled at his brand-new pet name. “’Course I am. The stream ends at like, five.” He said, before looking at the monitor displaying his plans for the stream itself.

“Alright, that’s great! Hunk knows this place that he worked at a couple years ago. We have to go there for dinner.” Lance said, with an enthusiasm that Keith had always loved, even back when he called that handsome Latino ‘Blue’.

“If Hunk likes it, then it must be good, yeah?”

“But of course. It’s called Vrepit Sal’s. I think they serve diner stuff with Japanese fusion food, or something. The place was crap before Hunk arrived, too. I swear, he said he felt like Gordon Ramsay in one of those Kitchen Nightmare episodes. They literally begged him to stay when he got the job offer for the engineering firm.”

“Huh. He quit a cooking job for an engineering one?”

“Yeah.”

Keith thought about it for a few seconds, imagining him in Hunk’s shoes. With how Lance had put it, it seemed like a mystery why Hunk would give up on such a great job that stuck to his roots. Instead of continuing, though, Keith decided to return to the topic of the restaurant itself.

“What does Vrepit Sal’s even mean?”

Lance chuckled. “No clue, but I’m pretty sure they serve amazing food there. Think the owner’s called Sal.”

“That makes sense.”

“’Course it does.”  

Keith smiled. “Alright then. Friday night?”

“Of course, baby.”

Keith chuckled. “Alright, I’ll see you later.” I love you. The phrase nearly leaked out of his mouth.

“Bye, babe.”

“Don’t call me that.” Keith said with a blush.

A small snicker is heard. Keith’s heart could probably have done a backflip. “Okay, baby boy.” Lance spoke with a tender, whispery voice. He couldn’t have taken more of this… flirtiness.

“Oh my God, that’s worse.” Keith said, covering half his face with one of his palms.

Keith heard another snicker. “Okay, I really gotta go, class is starting. Bye.”

“Bye, darling.”

“Yo—” The line goes dead, and Keith grins victoriously. That was before he looked at his leftmost computer, which ordinarily would show Keith what his stream looked like live on Arusia.

Yet, it had been showing his face, with no overlays, nothing but him.

And to his right, his chat, which had been freaking out for God knew how long.

Greatnessbeyond: girlfriend? :eyes: :eyes:

Soyvetyounion: > "girlfriend? :eyes: :eyes:"

                        The guy’s gay you idiot

Greatnessbeyond: boyfriend? :eyes: :eyes:

Rednessofall: I don’t think we were supposed to see that…

Keefystan: omgomgomg he’s so pure

Zarkonian-Grand-Order: KEEFY HAS A GIRL????

Soyvetyounion: I swear to god

He could feel sweat coating his forehead, and his heart, which had been fluttering before, was now beating as if he’d been running across the neighborhood. His legs felt like jelly poked with a fork, and a wave of chilliness flew through his spine. The only time he’d felt this wave of anxiety and despair was his first presentation in middle school.

Instinctively, he spammed ALT and F4, which did the trick of shutting down the stream. But the damage was definitely already done. Everyone – all that had been watching his stream – now knew he had a boyfriend.

Fucked.

He was so… fucked.

Chapter Text

Top 10 Queer Online Personalities

…

3. Keith Kogane (RedLion03)

Born in Virginia, this 28 year old gay Asian-American has made it to be one of the most subscribed Arusia streamers within YouTube.

Keith is a speedrunner of the game Grand Theft Auto V, although many streams has him playing other video games, including Minecraft and other GTA titles. His style of streaming, scheduling and charm has brought him more than two thousand views per stream, and two million subscribers on his two YouTube channels (RedLion03 & RedLionClips). He is considered one of the most successful LGBT gaming personalities in all of the internet.

On his personal life, he came out of the closet only a few months ago, on his monthly QnA. In the video, Keith seems to be nonchalant about the internet knowing his sexuality, which many believe is a big leap for the LGBT community, as there has been a small increase in people coming out to their families, co-workers and friends.

Lastly, although rumors have been circulating, Keith himself has confirmed that he doesn’t have a boyfriend.

“So, you don’t have a boyfriend now.”

Lance’s voice was rough and harsh, like sandpaper on Keith’s ears.

“What?”

“Oh, you didn’t even realize on your latest fucking stream that you said you were single?”

Keith stammered. His eyes were stuck onto his computer screen, which was paused on another off-screen practice run he’d been doing, until Lance called. “I didn’t—”

“You didn’t mean it?” Lance interrupted him. “I wonder what ‘I’m single, actually har har’ means?”

A strange feeling made Keith feel nauseous. Something alike his colon folding onto itself, his throat closing up and his spine overloading with a shock of one’s lifetime. His feet were tapping nervously, the thud on his room’s carpet not helping his sheer anxiety.

“Say something.”

More saliva was swallowed. Keith felt like his life was ending. Like the world was burning up from the Sun.

“I really didn’t mean anything about that.” Keith said, voice shuddering. “I’m sorry. I’m so, very sorry. Please, Lance—”

The line died. Keith was sure he didn’t accidentally turn off his phone, even with his death-grip on it. That meant… it could mean nothing. Emotions aren’t a stranger for Keith, and neither was it for Lance. Maybe he’ll call back, Keith thought. Or maybe the world will continue spinning like it was doing. His hand was trembling. His head begun to hurt. Sweat was dripping onto his floor. He felt like curling up and dropping dead onto the carpet.

He probably did. The last thing he saw before closing his eyes was the underside of his desk.

--

Silence.

There were no tears. A numbing sensation took over his mind.

He could hear the clock tick. His mind was racing. Every thought, every scenario was terrible.

His phone had been tossed onto the other side of his room.

How could one stupid throwaway line destroy his entire love life? Why was he so fucking dumb?

And was he actually worried about being out with his relationship?

Questions that were too late to be asked. The clock continued to tick, and the world was going to continue moving on.

If Lance did it, if he did it, nothing had ever happened. He was just a blip in the minds the millions and billions of people out there. Maybe if he could bottle it all up. Everything will be back to how it was, but he'll have his life back. Maybe if—

His doorbell rang. A dull buzz that he downloaded off the internet and uploaded into the doorbell app.

Keith’s first thought was just to ignore it.

But who really was it? Could it be…

--

“Keith.” Lance’s voice was duller than what he’d heard from the phone. Keith was glad that he wasn’t angry… on the outside. He seemed slightly paler, though. Keith’s own fault, probably.

“Lance, I—”

“Ah-papapapap, shut up, you idiot. The last thing I want you to do is ramble about how sorry you are.”

“What?” Keith raised an eyebrow.

“You’re an idiot.”

Lance dove into Keith. He nearly fell, but luckily for him, he still had some muscle mass left after his sedentary work life began. His boyfriend was warm to the touch. Warmer than anything, anything except his smile. Keith himself could prove to all of the scientific community – Lance’s smile is the warmest object in the whole universe. It’ll outshine any gamma ray burst or supernova or whatever.

“I’m sorry.” Keith said, voice muffled by Lance’s neck.

“No. It’s just a stupid sentence.” Lance sniffled. “I don’t really care. I’m just… emotional. And clingy.”

Keith could probably smile. His boyfriend is adorable. “That’s fine. And you’re not clingy—not like that.”

They pulled away from each other’s embrace and stared at each other. Keith was glad to finally see those amazing azure eyes once again. And don’t even start about those freckles, more enjoyable than watching the stars themselves.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re my boyfriend.” Keith said, before kissing Lance on the cheek. “Is this okay?” He whispered. A tear could be felt on his cheek.

Lance nodded quietly. “I’m your boyfriend.”

“And you can get angry when I’m… being stupid. I’m an idiot, yeah.”

Lance closed in, until there wasn’t any space between them. Keith could care less about whoever that was walking on the street outside his front door.

"I was so scared that we'd be..." Keith trailed off. He couldn't say it. There was no place for him to even utter that word.

Lance chuckled. “You’re a dork, too.”

Keith nodded, his forehead bumping into Lance’s nose.

“God, your hair tickles.” Lance said, giggling. "How is it so soft?"

“Shut up.”

“Make me.” Lance’s lips puckered. They tasted like cherry. Keith could hear his door shut, but all he could focus on was Lance. His boyfriend. His boyfriend.

The world spun around, and it was going to keep spinning. Yet Lance was still there, right in front of him. The feeling of his soft wet lips on Keith’s own, or maybe the way Lance’s breath shuddered when Keith put his arm on Lance’s hips. It was nothing like getting a world record or winning an online award with his community.

No one knew about Lance, not yet. And no one will ever know how good he feels against Keith’s own skin. How warm his cuddles are after sex. How much Keith enjoys it when he’s rambling about a story containing Pidge, his old roommate, or a tale about his gay uncle and his young cousins and siblings. How it feels when someone who means the world to him is in his arms, while he was in that very someone’s arms as well.

He felt incredibly selfish.

But when Lance puts his lips on his neck, he could practically float. A sedative, or something like that. It didn’t matter that they were melting around Keith’s furniture, tumbling across the living room until the settled on the hallway into Keith’s kitchen. He felt like he should've cared when Lance was sucking his neck like a vampire. He didn't. It just felt so good.

Noises of kissing. Lance's arms going under his waistband. His own hair wet from the sweat on his forehead. The tingling sensation of Lance's hair against his cheeks. The smell of lavender shampoo.

Lance was on him, and he couldn’t have felt any better.

--

“So, I think you’ve forgiven me.” Keith said, the dopamine and adrenaline lending him that extra confidence.

“Don’t think so, mullet boy.” Lance replied, lying on the carpet with Keith. “But maybe if you allow me to…”

Keith smirked. “I thought you’d give me a punishment.”

“Well, I probably have forgiven you then, have I?”

“Maybe you did.”

“Come on then. I brought condoms.”

Chapter Text

The streetlight outside lit up Keith’s room with a dim tint of orange. It’d been like that ever since the city council decided they’d use sodium lightbulbs to help against light pollution. Keith couldn’t complain, it’d given in a sort of therapeutic feeling. Like the warmth of a mother, where even against all odds, everything was going to be alright.

He’d been single his whole life until now. It’d only been about two or three months, the February weather giving way to the blossoming flowers of spring and the humid heat of summer. Everything about the month was a transitionary period for him. Knowing that the person he’d eventually love was mind-boggling, even as he laid beside him, post-coitus.

Yes, he had screwed up big time. Yet Lance, with his unimaginably large heart, decided that he was worth forgiving, somehow. The man that was finally more important, more interesting than any new strategy to bring him back on gold medal in his career, priority always higher than any schedule he’d cautiously built around his sleep schedule. Finally, someone that was going to mean the world to him. He never left.

“Can’t sleep?” Lance asked, sounding as tired as Keith was. And feeling Lance’s breath on his neck.

“M’yeah.”

Keith’s view of the curtains was replaced with Lance’s own face, as he turned around. “What’s up?”

“I don’t know. Thinking.”

Keith could hear the weak hum of his air conditioning. A bike passing through the freeway, louder than Keith’s even at max revs.

“Well, I know I said I didn’t care, but what happened in the stream?”

Keith shrugged his shoulders, shifting the sheets beneath him. “I think I was just unsure about it.”

“About what?”

Lance’s voice might have shuddered. Keith himself had a skip in his heartbeat. Again, why was he even worried? He’d already came out as gay even before their relationship. Even before he knew Lance as Lance.

“Making this… known.”

Lance’s breath, again. It smelled of faint toothpaste and mouthwash.

“But I think that I was just anxious. It wasn’t about how people would react.” Keith took a deep breath. “It was about how I’d feel speaking about the topic. I have to be honest; this is my first time, and I was scared that this…”

“This would mess me up?”

Lance looked directly into Keith’s eyes. Blue. He wasn’t going to see that color the same way ever again.

“Idiot.” He smiled. It looked as beautiful under the reflected light from the lamps outside.

“I know.”

“You don’t have to be scared, Keith. I promise that even if you do that stupid crap again, I’ll find you.” The corner of Lance's lips lifted upwards. “I’ll try to understand as much as I can. And we’ll work on whatever you were thinking about. Because I fucking love you and I’m not gonna give you up like that.”

Keith sometimes with he never had tear glands. “I love you.” He said.

Lance grinned. “I know.”

Keith smiled, and after a while, Lance apparently was reacting to something Keith had said. Or was it something he said…?

 “I just Han Solo’d you.”

Keith snorted. “What?”

“You are not going to be the Princess Leila in this relationship, no sir.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Those baby blue eyes gleamed against his own. Keith’s heart was probably doing flips instead of beating like it should.

“You’ve never watched The Empire Strikes Back?”

Keith paused, looking at Lance like he just said the true meaning of life. “I have but, I forgot—”

“Can’t believe it.”

“It’s not even that good.”

“Oh nonono, we’re breaking up this instant.”

Keith giggled. “What? Why would you—”

“You are talking to a Voltron fan here, mister. Everyone knows you have to watch and like Star Wars if you like Voltron.”

Keith scoffed playfully. Was this guy really serious? And was he really going to spend the rest of the night watching Star Wars? “Well, I’m definitely not asking if we’re doing a Star Wars marathon at…”

His phone lit up nearly the entire room. “At two am, are we?”

“You… well of course we are.”

There was no reason for them to watch the Phantom Menace. And there wasn’t a reason Lance could think of either that they had to watch it after both of them had confessed to not having any sleep.

But there they were once again. Keith laying against Lance’s own boney shoulder after the thousandth comment Lance had made about how soft Keith’s hair was. It really was surprisingly soft, and he was unsure how no one, including him had even caught on the fact after a year of watching his content. Keith could be an alien cat-person, it wasn’t a bad theory, the hair and the way he acts could be evidence.

Lance huffed in amusement. His mind can be ridiculous, sometimes.

Once the title screen faded in, though, Lance had already regretted agreeing to this idea. Sleep was catching up to him, even as the first line of text scrolled in from the bottom.

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…

“Hey, Lance.” He heard from the sleepy alien cat-person.

Lance hummed in response.

TURMOIL HAS ENGULFED THE GALACTIC REPUBLIC.

“So, you’re really okay about this.”

Lance turned his head, before remembering Keith was on his shoulder. “Why not?”

THE TAXATION OF TRADE ROUTES TO OUTLYING STAR SYSTEMS IS IN DISPUTE.

“You sorta hung up on me when I apologized.” Keith said, trailing off. “I thought you wanted it to end…"

HOPING TO RESOLVE THE MATTER…

Lance frowned. “No, God no. I would never…” Something had popped inside his head. The way his cloud of anger suddenly cleared when the words ‘I’m sorry’ came into his ears, and then bolting out of his room to satisfy the sudden impulse of needing to run towards Keith’s home. He DID drop the phone, and he might have broken his phone when he dropped it onto the plywood floor. “Oh my cheese, I’m sorry. I just bolted off and you probably thought—”

“It’s fine, Lance. I deserved it.”

“You don’t, Keith. I love you and I’ll never give up on you, on this.”

Keith smiled. It was beautiful. “I was really, really scared, you know?”

Lance paused, before letting a few chuckles escape out his nose. “You were?” He began to brush Keith’s long hair. It noticeably curls up at the end, and did he mention how soft Keith's hair was? Lance really couldn’t get enough of his hair. That morning, Lance made sure to take a photo of whatever conditioner Keith used, because holy cheese did Lance want hair like that.

(He realizes later that Keith doesn’t use conditioner and whines about it like a cat)

“Proper. I thought I was gonna die.”

“That’s how much you love me, huh?”

“Can’t deny it. I love you a lot.” His voice, too. Lance needed to admit to him that he should be doing ASMR videos with that stupidly soothing voice.

“I love you too.” Lance said, beaming at Keith. Keith smiled back, and the dimples he got was the best reward any human being could receive, in any competition. Just all of him was good. Was Keith perfect? He’s an anxious mess that gets clumsy under stress and blurts out words that he never meant to say out loud.

And that is why Lance loves him.

They kissed, just as the blank darkness of space gave way to the planet of Naboo.

“Let’s make a promise.”

“What kind?” Keith asked, shifting his head to look at Lance with his impossible big purple eyes. This man was impossible.

“If- when we’re scared, we’ll tell each other.”

Keith nodded. “Of course. I promise.”

“Me too.”

And they would last up until The New Hope.

Ben was very lucky when Mr. McClain had called in sick on this very specific Tuesday noon. It was the final period of the day, and the sub teacher, Mrs. De Santa, couldn’t care less about what her students were doing. Right in the middle of the chaotic period, RedLion03 began streaming.

RedLion’s face appeared right as the stream started. It was very unusual, especially for newer viewers like Ben. He hadn’t even had a clue that Keith was gay when the news was brought to him in another one of Keith’s streams. Even with that knowledge, RedLion was still a big part of Ben’s internet life. His dry humor gave him a charm that Ben couldn’t refuse to watch further.

“So, hey, guys. I’m just gonna start this early since it’s gonna be a pretty long day today. We’re doing one-hundred percent, as you have guessed from the stream’s title.”

Keith was smiling. He had been doing that a lot, lately. 

“But today is special, because we have a guest on our little stream. This is Lance, my boyfriend.”

The smile turned into a grin. Ben could see dimples on Keith’s cheeks, even on his tiny screen.

“C’mon, that’s your cue.”

Someone off-screen spoke, which made Keith laugh.

“No, we’re not playing Mario Kart together. We’ll do it later. Come on!”

It was a very familiar sight that stepped in. Brown hair, tan skin, sharp jaw, blue eyes. How was that even possible…?

“Dude, look.” Ben turned to his deskmate, who’d just been scrolling through Instagram. Luckily for Ben, he was a fan of RedLion as well.

“What?”

“Isn’t this Mr. McClain?” He pointed towards the man accompanying Keith.

The deskmate hummed, staring at the small monitor streaming the livestream. “That is Mr. McClain…”

“Lance fucking McClain is Keefy’s boyfriend?” The deskmate asked just as their teacher gave a small peck to Keith’s cheek.

“Holy crap.”

“Uh, yeah. What the hell…”

“…And remember to check out blueish blue, this handsome guy’s own Arusia and YouTube channel. I’ll put up the link—”

“No, you don’t have to do that—”

“Yes I do. I’m pasting the link into chat.”

“No, you won’t.

And there they were, fighting over the keyboard.

“This is why I don’t invite guests to my stream.” Keith commented.

“This is why I don’t make love with my idol.” Mr. McClain quipped. Both had burst into a laughter that even made Ben feel all giddy and his jaw couldn’t be more open.

“Jesus, Lance, we’re live!” Keith said, throwing Lance off onto a chair, before whispering something that was probably going to break Arusia’s terms of service, looking at Mr. McClain’s own lips turn into a nasty smirk.

“Anyway… Lance.” Keith glared at his boyfriend. “We’ll play a game of marbles first; this guy will be joining as well. Then we’ll be starting the run.”

“Wish me luck, babe.”

Babe. Keith had only recently picked up that word thanks to his boyfriend. It’d only been a couple days after that very terrible incident with that stupid line, but things couldn’t have been more different. For one, it was Blue’s first cameo on the RedLion03 channel. Keith was sure to squeeze every viewer on YouTube with the fact.

“Good luck.” Lance said, giving another kiss onto Keith’s cheek. He wished that he wasn’t so susceptible to his kisses. There was already a tinge of red on his cheeks.

“Thanks. Okay, let’s do this”

--

00:00:00

“Hopefully this can be world record. If this is your first time watching my hundred-percent streams, this will take at least ten hours. Just a warning.”

“Make sure to stretch a bit during Friend Request, babe.” Lance said in the background. The microphone barely picked it up.

“I will, I will.” Keith smiled.

--

00:08:43

“Another time-loss…” Keith muttered. “I hate this stupid gap.”

--

00:14:00

“This truck…” Keith felt his heart drop at the sight of the trailer of some randomly-generated truck. It only dropped more when there was another one. In his own experience, racing down perpendicular to two trucks was a very bad idea. “Oh, shit.”

Thankfully, he threaded the needle.

He heard Lance call him a tailor.

--

00:51:23

“That was very close.”

“Relax, Keithy boy.” Lance whispered to Keith’s ear, which was covered by his headphones, therefore Lance had to be loud enough to be picked up by the mic.

“I’m relaxed.” Keith replied before twitching to a close call with another random sports car. “Sorta.”

--

01:32:10

“When will Lance release his new album?”

Lance leaned in after hearing the question that Keith read out from chat.

“Oh, next week! Make sure to be vigilant for it.” He said, before giving a wink towards the camera.

“Yeah, chat. Make sure to check it out. It’s very awesome.”

“Thanks, Keith.” Lance kissed Keith’s cheek. Keith gave a smile before he went back to focusing on the speedrun.

--

01:59:59

“Actually in the green right now. Can’t be too cautious, though.”

--

02:10:23

Michael was nearly dead when Franklin finally took out the last of the enemies. Keith took a sip of the tea Lance brewed as the gameplay transitioned to a cutscene.

03:00:00

“Third hour, chat. Still at world record pace. Let’s do this.”

--

03:45:24

“Thank you, TheBeardedPole, for the subs, hope you enjoy the benefits. Make sure you check out Blueish Blue down in the description, too.”

--

03:55:21

“Where’s the music from?” Keith read one of the chat messages. “Well, it’s from that guy behind me. Newly released on Spotify a week ago.”

“Keeeeeeeeith…”

“You know I love you, Lance. You’re the definition of underrated.”

Keith smiled. Dimples appeared.

--

04:20:59

“Too bad there’s no 69^th second? Wh—” Keith raised his eyebrow, before noticing the time.

“Oh.”

--

05:04:47

“Any streamers I watch?” Keith read another one of chat’s questions. “Well, outside of my boyfriend’s channel, which is on my description, there’s a few speedrunner channels I like. DarkViperAU, who does similar content to me, and who doesn’t watch Dream’s Arusia streams?” Keith chuckled.

“I also watch this girl Altealurra, she’s a pretty small channel that plays games and the violin. Oh, and Lottolotors, which focuses on vlogs and hair products. I- err…”

Keith’s eyes move back and forth the camera. “I like his advice on hair. Anyway, nearly crashed into that pole, over there…”

(Lance could be heard in the background: “You like Lottolotor, don’t you?” Keith rolled his eyes.)

--

06:46:50

“My ass is numb, chat.”

“Stretch, Keithy boy.”

“I’m trying to drop off a crazy psychotic man’s love interest to her abusive mobster husband’s mansion, Lance!”

--

07:07:07

“Seven seven seven. Make a wish, chat.”

“I wish you would stand up during a cutscene.”

“You’re not chat, babe.”

“I was before we met.”

--

07:25:40

“Am I a weeb?”

“No. I’m Japanese, but I don’t particularly watch anime, or anything like that.”

--

07:26:02

“Is Lance a weeb?”

Keith chuckled. “He’s a geek for Voltron and Star Wars. Does that count as a weeb?”

No

“No? Damn.”

“I can hear you, Keith!”

--

07:40:59

“Please, game, don’t fuck me. Please?”

Waiting. The worst part of a speedrun.

“I’ve been nothing but good to you!”

Just as he’d finish whining, the game spawns a lucky taxi behind him.

(Lance said: “Whine louder and people are going to think you’re talking to me!”)

--

08:20:30

“I shot twenty-seven times into that pilot’s head, and it hit the gunner behind him.” Keith said, scowling at his monitor. “If Franklin dies here, I’m quitting.”

“You’re not quitting on my watch, Keith.”

“Lance, you don’t get—”

“No, I do get it. It sucks, but you gotta keep going. Still world record pacing, remember that.”

Keith grumbled underneath his breath. “Why must you always be right?”

Lance smiled. “You’re just that good, though.”

“Thanks, babe.”

--

09:30:30

“Ah, got bad RNG*. Nice.” Keith clasped his hands together. “Cool.”

“You’re doing just fine, Keith.” Lance dove in for another peck on Keith’s cheek. Chat, as always, sped up with its usual delayed reaction.

Lance chuckled. “They’re pretty jealous of us.”

Keith sighed. “I love you, Lance.”

“Love you too, speedrunner.”

--

09:54:59

“Oh my God, that was very close. Jesus Christ.”

--

09:56:30

“We’re almost there but… it’ll find a way, the game finds a way, it always does…”

Keith still couldn’t help but grin at his progress. Lance, at the background was still gawking at Keith’s adorable dimples.

--

09:58:03

“Shit, why isn’t it splitting**? We gotta go back and check the time for the last mission.”

--

09:59:01

Keith was full-on focused on his monitor. Lance was biting his lip in anticipation, waiting to either whoop in celebration or pat his boyfriend’s back in consolation. It was literally a matter of seconds.

--

09:59:40

Clicks. Just one last interaction and the game would be over.

--

10:00:00

(-00:00:03 seconds from world record)

 “Fifty subs?! Are you insane?”

Lance screeches and jumps around Keith’s room.

“Ugh, Lance, it’s not over yet, we still gotta see if it’s a hundred percent.”

                Stats//100% Checklist

                Status: 100%

His impulsive ass got up in an instant, nearly ruining his monitor as he crashed back down onto his chair.

“I FUCKING DID IT.”

Keith did loops on the swivel chair until he felt dizzy. Lance gave him a giant kiss on his mouth, probably grossing out every single view that had experienced this once-in-a-lifetime event that Keith managed to experience.

Lance, his impossible crush and now boyfriend had kissed him. He just won the world record for a hundred percent for the first time. He felt like gravity was turned off just for a second, and the world stopped right on its feet just to celebrate his incredible victory.

“It’s so bad. It’s such a terrible run.” Keith's voice shuddered. He felt like crying tears of joy.

“But every little bit of thing, it all added up… to this. Thank you all for keeping us company, and thank you, Lance for being with me all these ten hours. Oh my God..."

“Come on, Keith! I bought condoms just for th—”

The stream shut off before anyone could hear more of Lance.

Chapter Text

Lance giggled, putting a smile on Keith’s face. “We actually have to start the stream, you know?”

“But you’re so cuuuute…” Keith made a fake pout, his hands grabbing onto Lance’s plain blue t-shirt that was absolutely adorable. Every single part of Lance was just impossible.

“Okay, okay, let’s just start…” Lance clicked on the camera’s record button, and the stream finally turned live. He then cleared his throat while Keith sat back straight on his stool, making sure to have his arm around Lance. Keith stared towards the black foam wall behind the camera with a tiny smile, imagining the people who’d be behind the hundreds of screens viewing this stream. “Well, we got a special guest this time. You might have seen him, somewhere. Welcome, RedLion03!”

Keith grinned. “I can’t say enough about how grateful I am, Lance.”

Lance chuckled. “And I’m so grateful you came. Anyway, we’re finally doing a duet after countless requests to do one.”

It was insane, honestly. Half of Lance’s viewers had already become regular viewers of Keith’s own channel, while there were more RedLion fans that watch Blueish-Blue’s channel now, than actual people who found Lance’s music organically. And that was the reason why a duet was in such high demand.

Lance equipped his guitar which was hanging on his back. “We’ll be doing one we’ve never had before. Lucky, by Jason Mraz.”

“I recommended that.” Keith added.

Lance nodded, still smiling like a sunrise, his eyes gleaming from the lighting beside his computer setup. “And people have been digging that comment for a while now. Gotta keep promises, right?”

Keith nodded.

“Anyway, this is Lucky, by Jason Mraz.”

Lance begun with the strumming of his guitar.

“Do you hear me? I’m talking to you. Across the water, across the deep blue ocean, under the deep blue sky, oh my, baby I’m trying.”

Keith finally felt prepared when his verse arrived.

“Boy I hear you in my dreams. I feel your whisper, across the sea. Keep you with me in my heart.” A warm fuzzy feeling flushes across his chest. “You make it easier when life gets hard.”

They turned at each other, grins matching. Keith pulled his stool closer, his thigh nearly sticking to Lance’s own.

“Lucky I’m in love with my best friend. Lucky to have been where I have been.”

“Lucky to be coming home again.”

Keith started first on the next verse.

“They don’t know how long it takes, waiting for a love like this.” A deep breath. “Every time we say goodbye, I wish we had one more kiss. I’ll wait for you I promise you; I will…”

Lance’s turn. “So I’m sailing through the sea, to an island where we’ll meet. You’ll hear the music through the air.”

From his pocket, he got a flower out with his free hand. Keith blushed as he placed it on his right ear. “I’ll put a flower on your hair.”

Keith nearly giggles out of excitement. “Though the breezes, through the trees move so pretty, you’re all I see. As the world keeps spinning around, you hold me right here right now.”

“Lucky I’m in love with my best friend.”

“Lucky to have been where I’ve been.”

“Lucky to be coming home again.”

Keith couldn’t believe where he was. There was his man, the person he loves. And he’s singing with him.

And as the song ended, Keith couldn’t help but blow a big kiss on Lance’s cheek. The cheek went red, but Keith felt his pride swell just as Lance flustered.

“W-wow, live on Arusia.”

“I love you a lot, Lance.”

Lance chuckled. “I love you tons more, Keith.”

Keith’s cheeks were hurting from smiling so much. Maybe a few kisses from his boyfriend could remedy it.

Eventually, it was Keith who did the kissing, him giving Lance a peck on the cheek after every request on stream, no matter how gross and sappy he felt he was. Even worse was the fact that most of the requests were either suggestive as hell or so romantic Keith might melt like ice cream on hot pavement. But it doesn't matter how bad Lance's blushing became, Keith wasn't going to go anywhere.

Lance could never be embarrassing at all.