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Outside the glass window, the same prototypical suburban home whizzes by, the entire neighborhood pretty much being a homogeneous grid formation, while Keith desperately tries to tune out the Black Eyed Peas on the radio as Lance jovially belts out the lyrics.
Next to him in the backseat is Hunk, who is currently laughing at Keith (the traitor ), while Lance's mother’s attention stays glued to the road, though her tired smile is quite evident.
Luckily, it’s a sunny Friday in Florida, and the windows are cracked open, allowing the autumn breeze to rush in, as the sound of the wind whipping his hair is only crudely interrupted by Lance’s off-tune singing.
And it’s interesting. Even though Lance’s singing is flat out terrible , Keith still finds it endearing for some reason. It’s odd .
He simply supposes that’s what happens after you’ve been best friends for eight years.
His mind wanders as he remembers the first time he met Lance, all those years ago, when he was just four and trying to cope with his new surroundings after moving to Florida from Texas.
The blue-eyed boy had been so adamant about needing to befriend Keith, acting like it was his one and only duty in life to uphold.
And at first, Keith found it irritating, but Lance’s stubbornness and confidence was unshakeable, and in a battle of attrition, he broke down Keith’s walls, brick by brick, until the two of them practically became inseparable at the hip.
The sound of the engine sputtering out until it dies brings him back to the world of the living, accompanied by Lance slamming his door shut, and Hunk throwing the sliding door of the minivan open.
“Party time!” Lance whoops, opening Keith’s door for him.
“ Such a gentlemen,” Keith sneers, unbuckling and hopping out.
“Only for you, m’dear,” Lance shoots right back, laughing when Keith’s face takes on a burning red hue.
Hunk pulls his backpack of goodies out from the trunk, stuffed with school books that won’t be opened, and fancy game console controllers that allegedly “made you a better gamer” (they didn’t).
And so far, the routine continues, just another Friday night sleepover, this time at the McClains, with the three boys eating way too much sugar, and their energy is wild and alive well into the night, right up until Hunk conks out right before eleven.
Not wanting to disturb their friend, Lance drapes a blanket over Hunk while Keith turns all the lights off, leaving a lone lamp on as they both knew Hunk didn’t like to sleep in complete darkness (meanwhile Keith loved it).
The short trip up the stairs is quiet, both boys quickly taking turns changing in the bathroom, until Lance dives under the covers, Keith hesitantly following him in, even though this would be the millionth time that they’ve shared a bed.
Keith switches the lamp off, and the room is bathed in darkness, save for the dozen or so glow in the dark star stickers splattered across Lance’s ceiling, giving the room a soft, eerie green glow.
Keith keeps his eyes on the sight for a long while, bathing in it’s unique presence, until a sniffle from his right has his head turning so quickly he feels something pop in his neck.
“Lance?”
He hears his friend gasp quietly, before a hesitant “Keith?” comes from him, and dark, blue eyes emerge from the darkness, a slight sheen of green to them from the stars above.
“Lance, what’s wrong?” Keith murmurs sadly, wrapping an arm around Lance’s shoulders and squeezing gently, pulling him in towards Keith.
“I-It’s nothing…”
“No, it’s not.” Keith says, finally, and with a frown. “You almost never cry, unless it’s serious. So spill.”
“Promise you won’t laugh?” Lance whispers.
Keith puts his pinky up, Lance snorting wetly at the action, but locking their pinkies together anyways.
“Promise.”
“Okay…” Lance sighs, twiddling his thumbs. “I just… I’m worried, I guess.”
Keith doesn’t respond, but instead hums in acknowledgement, giving Lance time to form his words, just like he learned to do.
“I’m worried that… W-We won’t be friends by the end of middle school, a-and that we’ll be completely different people by highschool!”
Keith lets Lance’s worries sink in, a frown forming on his lips, before he turns to Lance with a smile.
“I can’t guarantee anything, but something tells me we’ll still be great friends by then. And I’m sure we will change! Shiro tells me people change all of the time, and that it’s not a bad thing.
So don’t worry. Even if we’re completely different people, we’ll still be by each other's side. Even if I’m a big, bad, edgy emo kid I know you’ll be there for me, just as I’ll always be there for you. I’m sure of it.”
“How can you be so sure?” Lance quietly asks, his face in awe.
“Because…” Keith hums, “we’re in this together.”
Lance smiles, seemingly satisfied with Keith’s response, and hugs him, not letting go.
“You’re such a great friend, Keith.” Lance sighs, squeezing him hard. “I feel like I can tell you anything .”
“Heh,” Keith chuckles, awkwardly patting Lance’s back, “same here.”
“Hmph,” Lance sighs happily, nuzzling his face into Keith’s shoulder, “Love you, Keithy. Goodnight.”
And that’s the first time Keith feels his world stop, his entire body freezing, the only response he’s able to grit out being a croaky “goodnight”, even though Lance is already fast asleep, lost to the world of dreams.
“Keith! Come set the table!”
The sound of Keith’s groan can be heard from miles away, as the now highschool Freshmen wills his body up and off the couch, his dad chuckling at his melodramatic antics that he felt like Lance had most definitely rubbed off on him.
“Heath! Get your ass up off the couch and help Keith!”
His dad’s laughter is cut short as his own groan escapes his mouth, sounding nearly identical to Keith’s.
The two of them saunter into the kitchen, Keith pulling some plates down from the cupboard while his dad fetches some drinks from the fridge and starts seting them on the table.
“Where’s Shiro?” His mom inquires, thanking Keith as he passes her the plates and loads them up, piling them high with delicious, steaming food.
His dad’s head pops out from the fridge, his nicked brow raising. “He ain’t home? I thought practice ended an hour ago?”
Just as his mom makes eye contact with his dad, the house phone rings, piercing Keith’s ears as the niggling sensation of dread spawns in his stomach and slowly makes its way up his chest.
“Hello?” His mother answers, gripping the phone tight.
No one says anything as the caller responds, the ball of dread inside Keith freezing his body when his mother falls to her knees and lets out a loud sob.
His father bends down next to her, his warm, gray eyes full of worry, while Keith can’t do anything but watch.
Through her tears sliding down her face and smudging her makeup, his mother croaks out, “It’s Shiro.”
💜
The last few days have been a blur, Keith not giving a single shit that his school work has piled up higher than Mount Everest.
To say the least, ever since that fateful evening, things had taken quite the turn.
Shiro was alright for now, but he was in a coma, and his right arm had to be amputated, in addition to him losing blood. A lot of blood.
No one knew when he’d wake up, and while his parents were up and about, making trips to and from work, their house, and the hospital, Keith stayed up in his room, blinds shut, while he did absolutely nothing but wallow.
After he’d seen Shiro the first time, covered in bandages and looking like he was on the brink of death, Keith couldn’t handle it.
All his mind could wander to was the fact that some imbecile had decided to drink and drive, nearly taking his brother’s life as he just tried to make his commute back home after a tiring day. And seriously, who the hell drinks at 6 PM?!
Keith’s mind wanders to all the things he wants to say to this person, how he wishes for them to atone to their crime, but a ding! from his phone has his head snapping to it and reminding him that he has yet to speak to any of his friends for the past few days.
He sighs as he opens his phone and sees the gargantuan string of messages from Lance, Hunk, Allura, Matt and Pidge, the vast majority belonging to the primary member.
53 new messages, 42 missed calls from Lance alone.
Shit.
Numbly, Keith clicks on Lance’s contact information, ignoring all the unread messages for now. His heart can’t help but warm at his profile picture of him and Lance hugging on the beach together, with a blue heart next to Lance’s name (Lance declared that if Keith were to ever remove the heart, he would be immediately defenestrated from his bedroom window).
Taking a deep breath in and out, Keith clicks call.
It doesn’t even take one ring.
“Good, you’re finally awake. I’ll be there in five.”
Click.
Keith pulls his phone back from his ear, gawking at the Lance 💙 has ended the call notification, as it seemingly blinks mockingly at him.
And knowing Lance, his best friend of now eleven years would definitely stay true to his word.
Sighing in defeat, Keith slumps down the stairs, and enters the kitchen on a mission to make some bagel bites, since it was one of the only snacks both him and Lance adored.
The toaster oven dings at the same time the doorbell does, signaling completion and an arrival. Keith makes sure to take the bagel bites out before he goes to the door, not wanting to have their pseudo dinner go up in flames, nor his house.
Setting the plate piled high with the treats on the coffee table, Keith makes his way over to the door, where he’s immediately tackled to the floor as soon as he opens it, a sniffling Lance on top of him and attempting to squeeze all of the life out of him with his gangly arms that seemed to get stronger and stronger each and every day.
“I’m so sorry, Keith.” Lance croaks, hugging just a little bit tighter.
“It’s okay,” Keith breathes, shyly hugging Lance back, “he’ll be okay.”
Lance pulls back, tears in his eyes, as he sniffles again and pouts. “Don’t ghost me again, mister. Okay? Or Hunk, Allura and Pidge. And especially Matt, in this case! You know he’s one of Shiro’s closest friends.”
“Right,” Keith says around a wince. “I won’t. Sorry.”
Lance sighs, his shoulders slumping, before his nose twitches and he sits back, squatting, as his nose takes in the familiar smell.
“Did you…?”
“Yup.” Keith smirks.
Lance whoops in victory, standing up and marching over to the couch, plopping down and taking the plate into his hands, shoving a couple bagel bites right into his mouth and chomping away.
“Hey!” Keith pouts. “Don’t eat all of them! I worked hard.”
“Yeah, right ,” Lance sneers, “worked hard on not burning your house down.”
Keith continues to pout, but sits down anyway, and puts on some random movie, the two of them making it their job to critique the hell out of it.
It’s comfortable. It’s familiar. It’s nice.
It’s exactly what Keith needed.
He lets his head slump over and lay on Lance’s shoulder, his friend chuckling as he wraps an arm around him and squeezes.
“I’m here for you, Keith. Don’t ever forget that.”
“I know.” Keith whispers.
“Good.” Lance squeezes his shoulder again. “I love you.”
Keith stills, but relaxes a second later, snuggling into Lance.
He doesn’t respond, and fakes that he’s fallen asleep, but judging by Lance’s sad sigh, he figures he might be missing out on something.
Junior year was… beyond interesting, to say the least.
It had been two years since Shiro’s accident, and while he had made a full recovery (Thank God ), life didn’t stop it’s seemingly constant torment on Keith.
From pulling all-nighters in order to make sure all of his school work was completed on time, to figuring out the ropes of a constantly changing social environment, high school had no shortage of obstacles to hurdle.
The most recent development being a quite… confounding one.
After some research and realizations about himself, Keith finally put all the puzzle pieces together.
He was gay.
Very gay, in fact.
He had yet to tell anyone, out of fear of how they’ll treat him, but the longer he kept it to himself, the more intensely his heart yearned that he let someone, anyone , know the truth about himself.
But who?
His 7 AM alarm reminds him that he better stop staring at his bedroom’s carpeted floor, and instead get his ass up and go to school, lest he be late. The last thing he needed was another tardy from Mrs. Honerva.
💜
The period before lunch, Keith makes a decision.
He’s going to tell Lance. He needs to.
They literally tell each other anything and everything .
So, during lunch, he tells Lance to come over afterschool, the blue eyed boy eagerly agreeing, whining about how it had been too long since they’ve hung out (damn Lance’s swim practice and Keith’s writing workshops).
Just the idea of telling him, letting someone know has Keith’s stomach filling with butterflies and his heart somersaulting.
💜
Keith tosses his backpack towards some random corner of his room as Lance belly flops onto his bed, his melodic laugh causing Keith to stop in his tracks and stare.
“So?” Lance asks, peering at Keith through his crossed arms as he lays on his stomach, causing Keith to snap out of it. “You mentioned you wanted to tell me something?”
“Uh, y-yeah,” Keith coughs.
Lance smiles warmly at him and sits up properly, patting the spot on the duvet next to him, his eyes radiating nothing but patience.
Keith obliges, Lance giving him all the time in the world to organize his thoughts as Keith mulls over what exactly to say.
And, well, in his experience, he’s always loathed beating around the bush, so…
“I’m gay.”
Keith shuts his eyes, worried about what look might adorn Lance’s beautiful features, until Lance shatters the relatively awkward silence.
“Cool. Me too.”
Keith’s eyes snap open and he turns his head to stare at a quite bashful Lance, whose cheeks look about as warm as Keith's feel.
“W-What…?”
“Well,” Lance coughs, “I’m not gay gay. I’m, uh, bi.”
Oh.
“ Ohhh. ” Keith sagely says, nodding his head.
“Yeah,” Lance laughs awkwardly, “like, both women and men are hot, ya know? Like, why is everyone so hot? Wait, you wouldn’t know, you’re-”
“-Gay, yes Lance, I know ,” Keith laughs, shaking his head. “You’re such a dork.”
“Heh,” Lance chuckles, before he’s suddenly embracing Keith. “Thanks for telling me, K. I love you.”
Keith feels his heart beat into overtime at those three words, though his own embrace never wanes.
“Thanks for telling me too. I’m proud of you.”
Lance pulls back and shoots him a blinding smile. “Proud of us . We’re a team.”
“Right,” Keith says quietly, “A team.”
“Hey,” Lance hums, bumping their shoulders together, “maybe we can go to a Pride parade together in the summer.”
“Yeah,” Keith sighs happily, staring at Lance as he starts to babble about how this was such a relief, for some odd reason. “I’d like that.”
Keith’s hands shake as they hover over his keyboard, the clock reminding him that it is now one minute away from 6 in the evening.
One minute, and then the next four years of his life would be set in stone. All of his work over the past four years or so has led to this very moment.
“You ready?” Lance asks from his right, his laptop perched on Keith’s desk next to his computer as they await their future together.
“As ready as I’ll ever be.” Keith informs with a nervous chuckle.
“It’s okay,” Lance soothes, though Keith immediately detects the quiver in his own voice, “we got this.”
Keith hopes so, but he’s not too sure.
Their top choice together was The Garrison Institute of Technology in Tucson, but with an acceptance rate of 7%, the school was notorious for being one of the most selective in the country.
“Oh, shit ,” Lance breathes, and when Keith refreshes the page, he sees the notification pop up, alerting him of a status update to his application.
A quick glance to Lance’s screen shows him the exact same view.
“Okay, let’s do it together. On three?” Lance asks.
“On three.” Keith agrees.
“One…”
Please.
“Two…”
Please .
“Three!”
And…
“I GOT IN!” Keith screeches, jumping up and out of his chair, his parents and Shiro flooding into the room from their eavesdropping perch outside his door with huge smiles and whoops of congratulations as they form one giant group hug and laugh.
When Keith fails to feel a missing pair of arms join in on the hug, he glances over his shoulder and spots a downcast Lance, whose eyes fail to meet his.
His family lets go, seeming to sense Lance’s beyond disappointed and upset demeanor, and politely leave the room, his mom shooting him an encouraging smile and a thumbs up.
“Lance, did you…”
“Waitlisted.”
Keith sits down again, and entwines his hand with Lance’s, squeezing a little harder than usual to garner his attention.
“Hey. Eyes on me.”
Glossy blue eyes meet his, and Keith pulls Lance into a hug, rubbing his friend’s back in soothing circles.
When Lance lets out a whimper that morphs into a quiet sob, Keith feels his heart sink even further.
“Hey, hey, hey,” Keith says, panic flaring, “Lance, it’s okay! You got waitlisted, not rejected.”
“B-But we aren’t together!” Lance wails, pulling back with red eyes. “This is exactly what I was afraid of, all those years ago! You’re pulling away from me, and there’s nothing I can do to stop you!
It’d be selfish to anyway,” Lance sighs sadly, rubbing at his eyes, “Y-You’re gonna do great, and go on to do amazing things, just… not with me.”
“Hey,” Keith says, much more austere this time, “Lance. Look at me.”
Lance looks up right into his eyes, and this time, holds his gaze, his bottom lip wobbling, and Keith takes his hands into his own, tilting his face up minutely so their gazes lock and stay that way.
“Lance, it’s going to be okay, alright? You’ll get in. I know you will.”
“No you don’t…” Lance grumbles, his broad shoulders slumping.
“I do .” Keith corrects. “I’ve known you for almost fourteen years , Lance. You’re my favorite person in the world, and I know how amazing you are. Seriously, you don’t give yourself enough credit for all you do.
That science experiment in Sophomore year was wild , and even Mrs. Holt, the certified genius, was shocked by it.” Keith sees a corner of Lance’s mouth quirk up and he takes that as his cue to barrel on, his own smile growing. “And remember Hunk’s seventeenth birthday party when we all went airsofting?”
“You mean when I kicked you and Shiro’s asses?” Lance snorts.
“Yeah, okay, just a little,” Keith chuckles, before he continues. “But seriously, Lance. You’ll get in. And if you somehow don’t, then we’ll just go to Arus University together since we both got in.”
Lance’s head snaps up, his eyes wide. “K-Keith, you can’t do that! Garrison is our dream school , you shouldn’t let me hold you back-”
“Lance.”
Lance’s mouth clicks shut, and his eyes meet Keith’s once again.
“I mean it,” Keith continues, “I’d do that for you. Hell, I’d do anything for you.”
Lance’s lips part, before a coy smile takes his face. “You mean you’d publicly humiliate yourself for me?”
“Of course.”
“Sure thing, Mr. I hide up in my room all day.”
Just as Keith opens his mouth to retort, Lance hugs him again, then squeezes him impossibly tight.
“But Keith, congratulations. You got into the Garrison for crying out loud!” He pulls back, and hello , is the smile on his face blindingly beautiful or what?
Keith smiles back, but he can’t help but send a silent prayer to whatever deity is out there to answer his sole request, just this once.
💜
The day has come for Lance, as both boys are stationed in his blue Ford in a vacant parking lot, as Lance blindly hits the notification to his application.
Keith lets his eyes wander over the words, the first one immediately defusing his nerves and causing one of the biggest smiles he’s ever felt take over his face.
“Keith, buddy?” Lance chuckles nervously, still refusing to look. “...Well?”
Keith cranes his neck up and let’s his breath ghost over Lance’s ear, the elation in his body growing tenfold as the realization sinks in.
“Guess Arus isn’t on the table anymore.”
Lance’s eyes immediately snap open, a loud gasp escaping him, before he’s squealing with unbridled happiness, and lunging over the center console to tackle Keith, both of them laughing jovially as they topple.
“I DID IT, K!” Lance screams, banging his fists against the poor car’s roof. “I DID IT, BABY!”
“You sure did!” Keith laughs, his eyes never leaving Lance once. “I’m so proud of you, Lance. Seriously.”
Lance looks over at him, his smile turning genuine as he shakes his head.
“No, thank you , Keith. I couldn’t have done this without you.”
“Well, you did all the work-”
“Ah bup bup!” Lance shushes him. “You were in my corner the whole way, and picked me up at my lowest point. So no, thank you , you beautiful, hard headed, mullet adorned, knife loving weirdo.”
Keith chuckles awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck and willing the heat in his cheeks to recede, even just a little.
“Yeah, okay, no prob-”
“I love you, Keith.”
Keith takes a steadying breath at Lance’s words, still not used to it even after all these years, before he forces his face into a more noncommittal, awkward, artificial grin, and abruptly changes the subject.
“Hey, wanna get some celebratory smoothies from that new juice bar in town?”
“You bet!” Lance whoops, putting the car into drive and zooming out of the parking lot at a speed that most certainly wasn’t the safest.
Though, Keith notices how his cheer contains significantly less genuinity, and instead, a more forced, strained lilt to it.
Keith, as per usual, chooses to ignore it.
He has still yet to understand it.
The Garrison was everything Keith could’ve hoped for and more.
In addition to him and Lance getting in, Hunk and Allura also joined them. Sadly, Pidge was a year younger, and when the time came for them, they decided to go to an even smaller, more selective school up in the New England area.
While he missed them dearly, he made sure to call them at least once a week (even if they didn’t pick up, wrapped up in some obscure science project that Keith could barely understand).
Anyways though, the Garrison was great! Fantastic, even.
Keith loved all his teachers, and was learning more and more about subjects he actually gave a shit about, instead of being forced to take ones he absolutely loathed.
Him and Hunk became roommates, while Lance roomed with a nice, quiet guy named Ryan (Keith didn’t miss the googly eyes he made at Hunk, and the eyes Hunk made back). Meanwhile, Allura roomed with a very eccentric, yet outgoing girl from France named Romelle, who was quite adamant that Keith should join the dance club, even though he’s never danced before in his life, not counting the one time Lance physically forced him to at Shiro’s wedding a year ago.
Speaking of weddings and love, tomorrow was Valentines’ Day.
And Keith, for once, actually had a date.
During his painting class, some well dressed guy, who was also a Sophomore, invited Keith to some over the top restaurant, explicitly labeling it as a date .
The man in question was pretty easy on the eyes, Keith had to admit, but he wasn’t quite what he was looking for. His name was Lotor, and, according to Romelle, he was quite the dick.
Still, Keith accepted Lotor’s offer, not able to stomach going to some party with Lance and watching him go off to God knows where, like last year.
Keith looks up from the dull cement path, and makes a left turn, pushing the doors to one of the school’s dining halls open, where Lance, Hunk and Allura told him to rendezvous at after his creative writing class.
He spots them after a few moments and heads over, to where a chattering Lance and Allura hover over a very bashful looking Hunk.
“Keith!” Allura hollers, spotting him first. “Ryan finally did it!”
“Did what…?” Keith asks, not following.
“He asked Hunk out for V-Day, you rock ,” Lance snorts, slapping him on the back.
“Oh, nice. Congrats, man.” Keith compliments, holding his fist out, which Hunk shyly bumps.
“I still can’t believe it,” Hunk grumbles, covering his face with his gloved hands, “I thought he was joking at first…”
“ Please ,” Lance sighs, “I think everyone on campus knows you two have had the hots for each other.”
Hunk groans louder, before Allura turns her attention to Keith, smiling coyly.
“Hey, Keith~” She starts, “do you have a Valentine?”
“ Allura! ” Lance hisses, his own face coloring.
“Uh, yeah, actually…” Keith mumbles, rubbing his elbow.
Immediately, three wide pairs of eyes snap to him, and he suddenly feels like some specimen being examined underneath a microscope.
“ What?! ” The trio bellows at the same exact time, taking on various emotions of excitement, bewilderment, curiosity, and a little hurt from an all too familiar pair of blue eyes.
“WHO?!” Allura shouts, garnering a little too much attention. “Oh, Keith, you must tell me everything .”
“U-Uh, it’s Lotor,” Keith mutters, wincing as Allura’s face does a complete one-eighty, her previous excitement being washed away instantly and replaced by cold, calculating eyes.
“... What …” She seethes, marching up to him and jabbing a finger in chest, “...were you thinking ?!”
“Allura, chill out!” Keith snaps, gently prying her manicured hand away from his chest. “I just said yes to entertain him, it’s not like I’m actually gonna take him seriously.”
She deflates, realizing that she might’ve come on too harshly, before she gives him a wry smile. “Do me a favor then, and order the most expensive things on the menu, yeah?”
Keith laughs, shaking his head. “Like you’d have to tell me twice.”
Glancing back to the other two at the table, Lance’s hurt and oddly betrayed expression has morphed into that uneasy, phony smile he does whenever he’s trying his hardest to conceal his true emotions.
“What time is your date?” Hunk suddenly asks.
“Uhh, like, six? I think?” Keith responds, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly.
The other three laugh, before Lance loudly clears his throat. “Well, I know that Allura and Romelle are hanging out, but I will be on my merry way to Aqua for tonight!”
“Woah, isn’t that like a super fancy seafood place on the outskirts of the city?” Hunk asks in awe.
“Yup!” Lance boasts, puffing his chest out. “And I’ll find, like, the hottest person ever , thank you very much!”
Allura rolls her eyes, putting her pointer finger next to her head and rotating it, the universal sign for crazy, causing Keith to laugh while Hunk gives Lance a sympathetic smile.
“I’m sure you can do it, buddy.”
“Why thank you, Hunk!”
The rest of their time before they have to part ways for class goes by with Allura giving Keith a long list of all the possible ways imaginable to sabotage his date with Lotor, while Hunk shoots him pleading eyes from across the table, trying to convey some sort of message to him while Lance rambles.
Keith is lost about the meaning of Hunk’s looks, but tries not to let the worry ebb at him too much.
He’ll just ask him what he meant when they’re both back at their dorm.
💜
Keith doesn’t get home till almost one in the morning, and quietly tries to sneak into his dorm.
Opening the door, the lights are off, and he creeps in silently, but as soon as he closes the door behind him, the lights flick on and he spins around to see a very disappointed looking Hunk.
“Hunk?! What the hell dude-”
“Take a seat, Keith,” Hunk instructs, nodding his head over to Keith’s bed.
Keith wordlessly follows Hunk’s orders, taking a seat, and looking expectantly over towards Hunk.
Hunk sighs, and turns his warm, brown eyes to Keith, looking as sincere as Keith has ever seen him.
“Keith, I need you to be completely honest with me.”
“Y-Yeah?” Keith stutters. “What’s up?”
“Your plans with Lotor- no, your feelings - are completely one sided, yes? You actually don’t like him like that -”
“No, Hunk.” Keith interrupts, laying back on his bed and sighing. “I don’t.”
“And how should I believe you?” Hunk questions, crossing his arms.
“Because,” Keith hums as he sits back up, shooting his best friend a shy smile, “I’ve already got eyes for someone else.”
Hunk’s mouth forms a little ‘O’, before he smiles warmly, and envelopes him into his signature Hunk hug.
“Just… don’t be afraid to let him know, okay?” He pulls back and grins. “I spent so much time worrying about how Ryan felt, but look how that turned out.”
“Pretty good, I’d say,” Keith hums.
They both laugh, and when Keith falls asleep, he dreams of blue eyes that have always been there since he could remember.
💜
By the time seven rolls around, still with no sign of Lotor, Keith sighs and admits that Lotor stood him up, texting a quick message to the group chat.
Gay Edgar Allan Poe: Looks like our plans are foiled, Lura. He’s a no show
Princess: aww :(
Princess: and here i was beyond excited to hear about it!
Cinnamon Roll: Can’t say I’m surprised, but wow
No reply comes from Lance, and the neon blue of the restaurant’s sign seems to glow just a bit brighter as an old, pink Cadillac pulls up.
Keith shields his eyes with his hands from the car’s bright headlights, as a tall, lanky figure gets out, their hands on their hips as they hum obnoxiously loud.
“What’s the matter? The man of your dreams is a no show?”
Keith’s eyes widen.
“Lance?!”
Lance groans loudly, marching over in a dapper navy blue suit with gold trim, tsking. “Keith, I told you I was going to Aqua!”
“You know I can never remember the names of restaurants!” Keith whines, mentally kicking himself when the sign atop the roof of the restaurant does in fact display Aqua , as clear as day.
“Come on,” Lance says, grabbing Keith’s arm and dragging him to the Cadillac, “get in.”
“Wha- Hey! Where are we going?!”
Lance hops in the driver’s seat after him, grinning wildly.
“You’ll see.”
💜
They drive well into the night, and after a couple hours, Lance stops the car in the middle of the Arizonian desert.
Keith hops out and his jaw drops at the large, tall, steep towers of rock erected from the desert ground.
“Lance… this is…”
“Monument Valley, the second location on your bucket list.” Lance hums. “I didn’t forget.”
“I made that list seven years ago!” Keith laughs, bewildered yet somehow falling even more.
“Like I said, I didn’t forget.”
Lance opens the trunk of the Cadillac, which Keith learned he rented for the holiday, and heaves out a large picnic basket, taking a blanket out and getting right to work setting everything up.
Keith spots another object in the trunk, tall and thin, and all he can do is gape at it.
“Go ahead,” Lance chuckles, “pull it out, K.”
Keith blushes at the rare, intimate nickname, but obliges, and pulls out the telescope.
Lance helps him set it up, and together, they feast on the food Lance brought with him, and watch the stars.
“It’s so beautiful,” Keith breathes.
“Yeah,” Lance says wistfully, though his eyes aren’t on the stars.
Keith turns his head, blushing when Lance doesn’t look away.
“You’re staring…” Keith grumbles, beyond embarrassed.
“I know.” Lance says. “Should I stop?”
Keith stares back, willing his heart to not beat out of his chest.
“No.”
“Hey, Keith?”
“Yeah?” Keith whispers, his breath stuttering.
“I love you,” Lance says.
It’s an omen. A prayer. A declaration.
An answer.
+1
This time, Keith’s heart feels calm, as everything is how it should be.
“I know.” Keith says around his smile.
He leans in, and finally kisses the love of his life, grinning even wider as he feels Lance smile into it as well and reciprocate the kiss tenfold.
They stay like that for a millisecond and an eon all at the same time, and when Keith stares at Lance, he finally sees the future he wanted all those years ago.
“I love you too.”