Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“If he gets into one more fight he will be expelled.”

That’s what the principal had said after Keith had gotten into his third fight for the school year. Keith and another boy had been caught fist fighting in the hallway, landing them in the principal's office. Meaning the principal had to call Keith’s foster parents for the third time.

Adam was the first of the two to arrive, meaning he took the brunt of the principal’s lecture. He sat there and took it with a neutral look on his face. Never once showing what he was thinking on the inside. Shiro, who is a police officer, arrived a little later. He had sat on Keiths other side, keeping the 16 nearly 17 year old between the two.

The lecture lasted another half an hour after Shiro’s arrival. It went back and forth between the two groups. The principal was outraged at the sheer number of fights in the less than two months Keith had been there. Shiro and Adam were reassuring him that it won’t happen again. Keith sat there quietly, arms crossed, not looking at anyone, not speaking when asked to justify his actions. The conversation had ended with the threat and a week of detentions.

So here he is now, sitting in the back of Adam’s car while he drives. Shiro, no longer in uniform, sat in the passenger's seat. They had just picked him up from his detention. Instead of heading towards their home, however, they turned right instead of left. Past experience had taught Keith that changes in pattern, especially when he just got into trouble, were something to be wary of, and even sometimes fear. He did his best to push down his feeling of dread, instead crossing his arms as he put up his walls.

Shiro, who had been watching Keith through the rearview mirror, noticed him closing in on himself. He’d seen the boy do it plenty of times in the just over two months since they got him. Shiro wished Keith would trust him and Adam, but understood why he didn’t. Hopefully what he and Adam had planned would show the boy that they weren’t just going to give up on him like everyone else. That they were there to help him.

The car ride was short, only a couple of minutes long. Upon recognizing the building they pulled up to as Adam’s work place Keith calmed down. They weren’t at his social workers office. He let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. Adam and Shiro shared a look as they exited the car, gesturing for Keith to do the same.

Keith followed behind them quickly, curious as to why all three of them were there. He had been here before when Shiro would pick Adam up, but had yet to go inside. Adam would usually meet them out front, usually surrounded by the teenagers he taught. He would be giving them pointers and advice until his husband arrived.

“Keith,” Adam started, getting the boy’s attention, “the principal did make one valid point regarding your issues with fighting. You need a healthy outlet and something to do with your extra time.”

“You can’t get in trouble if you’re too busy.” Shiro said with a teasing tone as he held the front door open for both of them.

The front of the building had a lovely and comfortable lounge-like area that had doors leading to three other areas. It was big enough to handle a large flow of people. To the left was a door that led to both the theater and the stage. The door down the middle led to the adult section while the one to the right led to the youth. In one corner there was a reception area where a young woman sat.

“Good afternoon, Adam. A little late for the after school class today?” She said as she stood to greet her co-worker. “Oh, you brought your husband! Good to see you again, Shirogane. And who is this?”

“This is Keith, our foster son.” Adam said, introducing the teen to his co-worker. “He will be joining my class, so you’ll be seeing a lot more of him.”

“We’re glad to have you, Keith.” She smiled at him.

Keith only responded by crossing his arms, not looking at her. It didn’t bother her, though. She spends about half her day dealing with moody teens. She waved at the small family as they walked through the right door. The right door led to a corridor with two double doors on the left side and eight doors on the right side. There was a fire escape door at the very end of the hall.

“The doors to the left are the ‘classrooms’ while the doors on the right are private dance rooms for independent practice.” Adam informed Keith as he led them to the far door on the left. Passing the first set of double doors Keith could see a bunch of young children through the glass, too young to be teenagers. “This room is where I teach my class, where I’ll be teaching you. Come on in and take a look around.”

Keith stepped in, taking a look around. The place was extremely big, with high ceilings easily thirty feet tall. The room was divided into four sections with a stage in the center. To the front left were a group of kids practicing dances like The Waltz and Salsa. There seemed to be a small competition between four pairs if the cheering was anything to go by. A particularly small girl was cheering loudly for a couple made up of a large dark skinned man wearing a bandana and a slightly smaller pretty dark skinned girl. Behind them, in the back right, another group were all in sync practicing ballet. There were seven of them in total being led by a very beautiful tall, dark skinned girl with striking white hair.

The stage had only a couple of teens working on some large project. Keith recalled that the Athean Dance Theater did put on shows and held competitions. Adam had once told him that kids would often volunteer to work on props, music, display, and effects for either credit or volunteer hours for school. To the back right was an area clearly meant for stretches and exercise. Several stretch bars of various heights lined the back wall while exercise equipment lined the side wall. Another group of teens occupied this area in a mixture of stretching and exercising.

As he was observing Keith hadn’t noticed he had walked right into the front right section. More importantly he hadn’t seen what this section was meant for yet. And most importantly, he didn’t notice he had walked right in the middle of someone else’s unmovable path. That is until they shouted at him.

“Move, Mullet!” A voice shouted from behind Keith.

He whipped around quickly, barely managing to take a step back in time. What he saw confused him as he saw a body first before a head rose up. A set of arms stretched out on either side of his head, almost boxing him in. Then he saw the most beautiful blue eyes he had ever seen. They were like two deep oceans of the blues, clearest eyes. It was almost like time had frozen for him, as he locked eyes on those ocean orbs that set a different kind of fire in his chest.

If anyone was watching, which Adam and a certain gremlin were, they would have seen the way these two looked at each other when their eyes locked for that brief moment. The dusting of a blush, the widening of their eyes as their pupils dilated, their mouths slightly agape. The way such a brief moment seemed to last forever. If one were to believe in the concept of love at first sight they would have surely used this moment in time as exhibit A. For it is a moment like this that an artist takes their inspiration and finds their muse.

The moment came to an end as blue eyes sank back down from where they came. Keith watched as every part of their body drew back away. Now that he was paying attention he could see that they were swinging on a hoop attached to a rope. His legs bent over the hoop edge to keep him in place. He watched as they waited till the hoop reached in apex to smoothly righten themselves, arms reaching up to grasp the top as his, definitely a he, legs pointed downwards.

He was in a tight tank top and rather short shorts, showing off his lean body and long legs wrapped in flawless bronze skin. Brown hair that curled ever so slightly at the ends framed a freckled face with arching eyebrows and perfectly plum lips. As the hoop came back down he elegantly stopped the momentum with just a couple of steps on the ground. He stood just feet away from Keith, a tall beauty full of grace and elegance.

‘He’s an angel.’ Was Keith's first thought, then he noticed the glare in the others eyes. He then promptly realized the other boy had been talking. “What?” Keith dumbly asked.

The other boy narrowed his eyes, clearly not pleased with having been just ignored. “I said you need to watch where you’re going. Those red lines on the floor aren't just for decoration. Before you cross one, look both ways and up.”

Keith looked down to see a pair of parallel red lines on either side of him. Following the same path the boy had just taken on his hoop. Taking a quick look around Keith could see that the whole classroom was filled with them. He turned his eyes up to look at the other boy again, a slight blush on his face, a little embarrassed. Not really knowing what to do about it, he fell back on his default reaction.

He crossed his arms and scowled, matching the glare the other boy had. “I just got here, I didn’t know.” He huffed.

“Oh, so your first thought when entering a room full of people dancing and moving around wildly is to immediately get in everyone's way?” The boy said, mouth shifting into a smirk.

Adam, sensing a fight brewing, moved to intervene before anything happened. He gestured for the teens, who stopped to watch after hearing the yell, to get back to their practice. It worked for all but two who instead followed on his heels along with Shiro. Adam stepped up to the two teens, hands on his hips.

“Glad to see you two have already met.” He said, getting the attention of the teens. They both whipped their heads around to look at him. The blue eyed boy continued to look the other in the eye while Keith dropped his. He looked anywhere but at Adam.

“You know him?” Blue eyes asked.

“Yes, I have been meaning to introduce you two for some time, but I wanted to give Keith some time to adjust.” Adam said as he gestured to the moody teen.

The boy's eyes widened as he looked back at Keith. “That’s Keith?”

“You know of me?” Keith asked surprised, looking at the other teen. A hit of curiosity in his narrowed violet eyes.

“Keith, remember how I told you my cousin lives in this city too. Well, this is Lance.” Adam told him. The two teens looked at each other, almost sizing each other up.

“I thought you said he had his own apartment? Last I checked, teens couldn’t get one.” Keith stated as he looked back at his foster parent.

“I act as his guardian and as such it is my name on the lease, not his.” Adam told the teen, though the answer was far from satisfactory for Keith. “Anyways, I’m glad you two have now met, as I’m teaming you two up.”

“WHAT!” They shouted in unison, drawing the attention of the class again.

“WHY?!?” Lance shouted at his cousin, upset by the pairing. “He’s clearly never stepped foot in a dance class before. Can he even dance?”

“You’re doing this to punish me, aren't you?” Keith growled, clearly becoming angry. The red on his face growing deeper from his anger.

“A little bit.” Adam said honestly, addressing Keith. Behind him Shiro raised his brow at his husband, failing to keep the amusement off of his face. Adam turned to look at Lance, brown eyes hard. “I told you I would find you a partner, but no one here will work with you, and you know why. If you want to compete you are going to have to learn to dance with a partner. What better way to do that then to be the one to help them?

“As for you, Keith. You need to learn to get your temper under control. Dancing can be a great outlet and if you can learn to work with and get along with Lance you can get along with anyone.” Adam told the teen, hands on his hips. He spoke with a tone that displayed his authority in his domain.

“Hey.” Lance protested, almost pouting.

“There will be no protesting or arguing.” He held his hand up to stop any further protest. “My decision is final. There is one month until the tryouts, so I suggest you two get started as soon as possible.” With that he walked away to attend to some of the other students.

“This is some bullshit.” Keith all but hissed, furious at the situation. Not only did he now have to come here and prance around like an idiot he has to do it with someone else bossing him around. Plus a competition to top it off? Pure bullshit in his eyes.

“Whatever. Come on, Mullet. I’ll show you around so you know how to not get in anyone’s way.” Lance huffed, also not happy with the pairing. He hadn’t known this black haired boy for long, but something about him made Lance feel different. But he has to deal with it if he wants to compete. He needs to deal with it.

“So Adam finally got you a partner, huh.” Said the short teen that had followed the teacher over. Wide rimmed glasses framed brown eyes that almost matched her hair in color.

“Oh, hey Pidge, hey Hunk.” Lance cheerily greeted the two other teens. He hadn’t noticed that they had come over till now. He was a little preoccupied. “Yea, this is Keith.”

“We heard. We have ears, Lance.” Pidge responded dryly. She then turned to Keith, judgment in her eyes. Keith scowled at her in response. She made a noise in the back of her throat. “Have fun with this one, though I don’t think you’ll chase him away like you do with the others.”

“Hey! Everyone here likes me!” Lance said defensively, crossing his arms with a pout.

“Of course we do, buddy. You’re tons of fun to hang out with.” Hunk said with a placating smile. He had a yellow bandana wrapped around his head, keeping the hair out of his face. “But you can be difficult to work with. When you dance with someone you’re kinda, well, um. Pidge?”

“A controlling pain in the ass.” She said bluntly, not one to dance around the bush.

“I’m not that bad, I just know what I want done.” The blue eyed teen huffed as he turned his head away. That alone showed the truth in their words. “Anyways, the tour and then lets see how much dance skill you have.”

The actual tour of the room didn’t give Keith too much more information then he gathered with his initial look around the room. He did meet a couple of other students such as Shay, the girl Hunk was dancing with earlier, and Allura, the girl leading the ballet dance earlier. Turns out the four of them, excluding Shay, had a kinda group going on and hang out with each other a lot outside of the dance class. Shay had other extracurriculars that kept her busy.

Allura was the master of the ballet section. Hunk and Shay were two of the top dancers in the partnered section of the class. Pidge was from the stage area. She spent a lot of her time working on the electronics for the special effects and songs. She only came here to spend time with her friends as she didn’t really like dancing herself. Lance, lastly, dominated in the aerial section.

What did surprise Keith were the weight equipment in the back right area. He only expected things for stretching or endurance, but there were many machines meant for strength training. Lance explained to him, after he got done laughing, that many dances required a lot of core and upper body strength. Especially aerial and many partnered dances, which is what the two of them would be doing.

That led them back to the aerial section of the room. Lance explained all the equipment here. From the silks to the various sized lyra hoops. He made sure to go over the red lines several times. Lance explained exactly where Keith could and could not stand, often pointing to either side of the red line, much to said teens' annoyance. Pidge and Hunk got an absolute kick out of it.

“And that about does it.” Lance said as he finished the little tour. He turned to face Keith, hands on his hips. “Class is about over, you arrived late you know, so there's not much else we can do. Tomorrow we’ll see about those dancing skills and get started with a dance routine. The choreography will need to be worked out as quickly as possible. We only have a month, you know. I got an idea for the song genera we should do-”

Lance continued on talking about the competition, but Keith had stopped listening. Not that he intended to ignore Lance. In fact he could still hear his voice as he rambled. It was just a lot of information all at once. A lot of talking that the usual lone wolf just wasn’t used too so it quickly became overwhelming.

Pidge elbowed Lance in the ribs, then nodded her head in Keith’s direction. Lance looked back at Keith and stopped talking once he saw the look on his face. It was a mix of uncomfortable and overwhelmed. Keith had his arms crossed in an almost defensive position and was looking at the floor. It was almost…cute. Lance quickly shook that thought out of his head. He had no desire to think of the mullet head as cute.

“Uh, we can figure all that stuff out later, you know.” Lance said with a smile, hoping to calm the other boy back down. Little did he know, but that smile had the opposite effect. Instead it made Keith’s heart beat faster when he looked into blue eyes that almost glowed when lit up with that smile. Both Hunk and Pidge shared a look, smirks on their faces. “I’m sure Adam will give you some basic lessons tonight. Well, I need to get going soon. I’ll see you tomorrow at school.”

“We go to the same school?” Keith asked, face shifting to that of surprise.

“What are you talking about? We have like, four classes together!” Lance said indignantly, throwing his arms up.

“Well, why haven’t you said anything then?” Keith challenged.

“I didn’t know who you were.” Lance argued. “I didn’t know you were Adam's kid. I’m not going to just walk up to anyone I see in class. But I can’t believe you don’t recognize me.”

“Why?”

“W-what do you mean why?” Lance sputtered, getting a little flustered from indignation. “I’m the only guy in class that regularly wears a skirt! And heels. And even a dress once or twice already this year!”

“...” Keith stared at him blankly.

“Wow.” Lance said in sarcastic amazement. He crossed his arms across his chest, almost glaring at the other teen. “Well tomorrow, I’ll see you in class. If we get some free time we can talk more. So, bye.”

Lance turned around and headed for the lockers near the front of the room. They were right next to the door, easy to miss when walking in. They were used by the students to keep their stuff and a change of clothes in. Keith noted that very few of them actually had locks on them. He guessed trust whent a long way here, not that he could understand the feeling.

“So,” Pidge started with a sly smile, quickly grabbing Keith’s attention, “looks like you’re going to have your hands full with the residential diva, huh emo?”

“Pidge.” Hunk chidded gently before turning to look at Keith with an apologetic smile. “Sorry about her. Lance is a great guy, really caring. He just takes things a little too seriously when it comes to dancing. Not that it’s a bad thing. I mean, wait until you actually see him dance.”

“I hate to admit it, but the boy’s got skill.” Pidge said, nodding. “Don’t tell him I said that, though. Or else he will be insufferable for at least a month.”

“Noted.” Keith nodded a bit hesitantly. He was a bit unsure of these two. They seemed friendly enough, but looks can be deceiving. He’s gotten into enough fights to know that by heart by now.

“Hey, I’m sure you two will do just fine. I mean, I know he really wants to win, but it’s not the end of the world if you two don’t.” Hunk said reasurenly, an easy smile on his face. The guy had such a friendly air about him that Keith almost found himself letting down his guard.

He was quick to put it back up, crossing his arms as he did so. “I should go find Adam. It was nice meeting you two or whatever.”

He quickly turned around and walked away. He didn’t notice the look the two exchanged. He all but marched over to where Adam and Shiro were. Adam was giving some final pointers and lessons to the students as they filed out. Shiro leaned against the wall as he waited for his husband, a dopey smile on his face. Keith chose to lean against the wall a couple of feet from Shiro.

“You know he doesn’t mean to be mean by bringing you here, right?” Shiro said suddenly, startling Keith enough to make his jump. Shiro quickly apologized.

“Seems pretty mean to me.” Keith said as he settled back against the wall. He tried to will the blush of embarrassment on his face away.

“Adam and I care about you Keith, even if you don’t think we do.” Shiro started turning to fully look at the teenager. Keith didn’t turn to look at him in response, only watching from the corner of his eyes. “We want to help you, we want to see you grow up right and attend college. We want to help you work through your anger and Adam believes this is the best way to do that. We want the best for you kiddo.”

Keith responded by turning his head away. He’s heard it all before. The sweet words of other foster parents trying to get him to trust him, only to throw him away a week later. It would hurt worse than the one who ignored him before getting rid of him. The first couple of times he was hopeful enough to believe the sweet words, only to have that hope shattered when his social worker would pick him up.

So he refused to let this one get close to him. He refused to fall for their words of promise of a better future with them. He refused to let his walls down around the. He refused to let them in. It will hurt so much less in the end when they eventually get rid of him, just like everyone else.

“Whatever.” He said, waiting for the class to be over so they could go back. So he could go to the room they gave him in which his items were still packed in his suitcase. Ready for when he would have to leave.

Chapter Text

Keith stepped into his second class of the day, science, and was immediately called for by someone in the room. He swiveled his head, looking for who called out his name. He wasn’t too incredibly surprised to see lance waving him down. The boy was sitting on the far right of the room, about halfway down, right next to the big windows. He had his bag on the second chair to save it, but took it off when he saw the noiret.

His science teacher wasn’t too big on assigned seating. At the beginning of the year he told the class who they sat with would be their lab partners for the day or next couple of days. If they wanted to switch it up, that was on them. If they wanted to stay the saem so be it. It was their grade if they sat with someone they couldn’t work with. Keith normally sat in the back and did labs with whoever was late enough to class to get stuck with him.

Now, for the first time, someone was actively calling him over to be partners with him. This has never happened for the reclusive teen. The other kids would always do their best to ignore or avoid him. Not that he was exactly friendly, but the lengths some went too were less than kind. Now Lance was actually inviting him to sit with him.

Keith knew it was because they were partners for the dance competition. That was the only reason why the blue eyed boy was calling him over now when he never did before. So he pushed down the flicker of hope in his chest and marched over. He knew better than to expect anything out of this. Even if it was nice to think for a split second someone wanted to sit with him just because they wanted to sit with him.

“Morning, Mullet. Sleep well?” Lance inquired with an impish grin as Keith sat down next to him. Blue eyes lit up with his smile, accented with light eyeshadow and mascara.

“Don’t call me mullet.” Keith grumbled, almost immediately regretting taking Lance up on the offer. He looked the blue eyed boy over out of the corner of his eye, almost surprised to actually see him in a skirt. Lance wore a pleated denim skirt with a light blue flowy blouse and matching kitten pumps.

“You didn’t answer my question.” Lance said playfully, ignoring Keith's moodiness. He crossed one leg over the other under the desk, lightly bouncing it. Keith pretended not to notice it.

“Fine. I slept fine.” The noiret said through gritted teeth. His irritation flickered to life before he quickly tried to repress it. He did not need to get into another fight.

“Good, ‘cause I’m not getting a bad grade on labs if you didn’t sleep well. Okay Mr. Grouchy Pants.” Lance teased, pulling out his notebook. The cover was full of doodles and stickers, mostly of blue cats.

“And I better not get a bad grade because you can’t pay attention. Okay Mr. Bigmouth.” Keith bit back. Though he didn’t intend to be funny Lance still somehow got a chuckle out of it.

“Today's labs will be on chemical reactions and how mixing different chemicals in different orders will get different results.” The teacher said in a fast paced speech pattern. He always talked quickly and often out of order, resulting in plenty of rumors around the school saying he was on some form of drugs. The truth being that he just drank a lot of caffeine everyday. “You need to follow these packets, chronological order kids, and the instructions on them to a t. We don’t want anyone getting hurt. Follow the times on them as closely as you can to get the best results. Remember, do not be afraid of the shower. Okay, get started. I will be conducting my own experiment to see if I can use red bull instead of water for my coffee. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.”

“Chronological? What does that mean?” Lance asked, turning to Keith, confused. His brows were furrowed together in confusion while his nose was slightly scrunched. It was almost cute.

“You don’t know what chronological means? Really?” Keith deadpanned, already over this class period. Truthfully he wanted to skip school today, but knew better than to push his luck with skipping after getting detentions. He just wanted to avoid people as much as possible after both the fight and getting stuck with dance class.

“Hey, don’t judge me. English isn’t my first language.” Lance huffed, crossing his arms defensively. His face was an almost playful pout, but Keith could see a sliver of embarrassment in those blue eyes.

He felt a twinge of guilt for it. He didn’t intend to embarrass or hurt the other boy's feelings. He didn’t know the other teen was a natice english speaker. He spoke it so fluidly he couldn’t tell nor did he have any reason to ask. Not that it justified him embarrassing the other.

But he still refused to apologize for it. Why, he couldn’t quite place down. A little bit of pride and a little bit of something else. So instead he looked over the project. Choosing to push the problem away instead of addressing it or fixing it.

They were given twelve viles of 3 different chemicals. They were placed in 4 rows of 3 with each column containing its own chemical. So while there are technically 18 possible combinations they will only be able to complete 4 of them. Which 4 is completely up to them. They just need to add the third chemical no less than 5 seconds after adding the second to the first. Then record the results. They can, however, do the same combination twice with different times to see if there will be a different reaction.

“Why would there be a different result?” Keith muttered to himself, but Lance still heard him. The burnet had chosen to move past the problem as well.

“Oh, because when we add two of the chemicals together it makes a fourth. This fourth may still react to the leftover molecules of the first and second chemicals making a fifth and possibly a sixth or seventh chemical. Adding in the third will make a new one depending if it’s met with chemical four, five, six, or seven.” Lance started explaining, taking Keith by surprise of his intellect. His goofy personality threw him off, hiding the kid’s intellect behind jokes and laughter. “Now, a new chemical isn’t always the result of delayed mixing. A more stable mixture is also possible, meaning a less notable reaction when mixing the third chemical. All a molecule wants to do is stabilize and use’s its environment to do so.”

“So, even though there are 18 combinations there are more than 18 possible results, depending how fast we mix them.” Keith nodded his head as he jolted down the note. “So, maybe we should do two combinations with different times.”

“Yea, and let's do that. But you did forget something.” Lance said as he pointed to the different chemicals. He turned his head to look at Keith, myrth in his eyes. “While there are 18 combinations, only three of them will lead to different base results. Adding the red chemical to the blue one followed by the clear one will lead to the same result as starting with the blue, followed by the red and then the clear.”

“Shit, you're right.” Keith grumbled. He had forgotten to add in the end effect when figuring out the number of possible reactions. He blamed his lack of caffeine for the error. Still, he was somewhat impressed that Lance was able to come to this conclusion without having to write anything down. He did it all in his head. “I’m still not fully awake. I didn’t have any coffee this morning.”

“Oh, I see. We’re lacking the effects of the glorious bean juice, are we?” Lance teased, an easy smile on his face. He pulled his bag on his lap, digging around for a moment before pulling out a can of coffee. Mocha espresso with a shot of vanilla. He held it out for Keith to take. “Here. I keep a boat load of these things on me for Pidge. You’d be surprised what she’s willing to do for a hit of the bean juice. She has to be addicted or something to the caffeine.”

“You keep these on you?” Keith asked, hesitating to take the offered can. Gifts usually came with strings attached and he didn’t want to have to owe anyone anything. Certainly not to Lance.

“Not all of them. The rest of the case is in my locker, but don’t tell Pidge or else I’ll never keep her out of it. She can break into any lock she sets her mind to.” Lance laughed as he set the can on the table and pushed it closer to Keith. “Now, back to the experiment. I like blue, so we’ll use those as most of our basses.”

Keith decided to accept the gift after a moment of hesitation. He opened the can and let Lance take the lead on the experiment. He learned that despite his goofball personality he was actually rather smart. At the very least when running the experiments. And Keith actually found himself having fun running the project with Lance. Not that he would admit this.

Still the results ended as such;

Blue + Clear = White Opaque + Red = Fomy Sour Smelling Mess

Red + Clear = Dark Yellow + Blue = Orange Foul Smelling Liquid

Blue + Red = Clear Liquid + Clear = Purple Sweet Smelling Liquid

Blue + Red = Clear Liquid + Time + Clear = Purple Sweet Smelling Jelly

“Whoa, this stuff is cool.” Lance said as he poked the purple jelly like mixture. It squished and left behind an imprint that slowly refilled with the jelly. Almost like play slime or aloe.

“I don’t think you should be touching that with your bare hands.” Keith said as he crossed his arms with a disapproving frown and slight glare. Shiro would be proud of him.

“It’s fine, it’s not doing anything.” He brushed the other boy off as he scooped out a small handful of the stuff. He played with it in his hands, moving it back and forth as it stiffened a little.

“It could have.” Keith scoffed, mentaly taking back everything he thought of about the other boy. The kid was an idiot to be messing with the chemicals.

“Take a chance.”

“Not with chemicals.”

“I’m keeping some of this.” Lance said as he dug around in his bag again. He pulled out a mini bottle of hand sanitizer that was almost empty. “Here, rinse this out.”

“Why do I have too?” Keith protested, giving the other boy a board look.

“The sink is on your side, so unless you want me sprawled across your lap just rinse it out.” Lance rolled his eyes, still holding the bottle in Keiths direction.

“Fine.” The older boy huffed as he took the small plastic bottle. He unscrewed the cap, getting a chance to see that it was lavender scented, and rinsed the sanitizer out. Once he was sure it was good and clean he dried it off. “Here, don’t mistake that stuff for your sanitizer.”

“Thanks.” Lance said as he started filling the thing with the jelly.

“This is stupid.” Was all he said in response.

“Whatever.” Lance brushed him off, dropping the now full bottle in his bag. He turned his attention back to Keith. “You had fun, and don’t deny it. I know you did. So, since we have some free time, let's talk about our dance.”

“Uhg, fine.” Keith groaned out as he crossed his arms and threw his head back to not have to look at the tanned boy. “What about it?”

“Rude.” Lance muttered as he rolled his eyes again. “We need to figure out what we’re going to do. I primarily do ariel, so that's obviously the type of dancing we’re going to do. But you’ve never even danced before, let alone done something as difficult as ariel, so we’re going to have some problems.”

“Like what?” He asked, turning his head to look at the teen.

“Like keeping you in the air, pulling off the right positions, keeping it fluid and to the beat. Not to mention we have to dance together, so there’s that.” Lance said, listing off the things on his fingers. A more worried look crossed his face. “The judges are going to judge us on everything, and if we want a chance we’re going to have to work hard at this.”

“You do realize I don’t actually want to do this, right? This is my punishment for getting into a fight.” Keith reminded the boy.

“Give it a chance, you might be surprised.” Lance bounced back to a friendly smile. “We can start with the basics right after school.”

“I have detention until next Tuesday. I got into a fight, remember?” Keith reminded the other teen yet again, irritation in his voice.

“Really? All the way until Tuesday?” Lance whined, seeming to become a little stressed. “What were you even fighting about?”

“That’s none of your business.” Keith snapped at Lance, getting a shocked look in return. He huffed and turned his head away from the bronzed skinned teen.

“Alright, fine.” Lance said, letting it go. “We still have the weekend to do most of the work. We can still spend what little time we will have during this week going over some of the basics. How strong are you?”

The sudden question snapped Keith from his brooding. He wasn’t expecting that, but felt like he should have. “Uh, pretty strong I guess? I’m certain I can lift you.”

“Good, We’re going to need that.” Lance nodded, getting a thoughtful look on his face. “Part of what they judge for is originality. So maybe we can come up with something that doesn’t need you to be in the air the whole time.”

“You do that.” Keith snorted and got to work cleaning up the area. He didn’t want to spend another second in this class then he has too. He especially didn’t want to stay next to the beautiful tanned boy next to him. A small blush colored Keith's face as he thought that.

The rest of the school day whent much the same as any other day. Keith all but ghosted through it. During lunch he sat in the library like normal to listen to his music while getting a head start on his homework. When the end of school came he headed for the detention room and sat down at the table next to the window. In two hours Adam will pick him up to take him to the dance class for the last hour it was open.

He pulled out his sketchbook, a gift from Shiro when he first moved it, and opened a blank page. As long as he was quiet the teacher didn’t care what he did. As much as he hated being trapped in a class room for two extra hours a day, it did give him time to practice his sketching. Using his hair as coverage he put one earphone in and got started on the sketch. While he sketched he let his mind wander off.

Lance was really excited about this competition, not that Keith was surprised. From what he knew the boy had been practicing for quite a while. He’s not sure how long exactly. In fact, he knew next to nothing about the teen. Except how excited he would get when he talked about the competition. Or how his eyes would light up and shine when he started to describe the dancing.

Like how light shines through water and bouncing off a wall. All waves of light in mesmerizing patterns. The beautiful blue lights always shifting, fading in and out. A brand new pattern every single second. Never once repeating, at least not in the same way. Lance’s eyes were like that in Keith’s opinion.

Keith didn’t even realize what he was drawing until detention was over. He was startled from his thoughts by the kid next to him standing up. Taking a glance around showed that everyone else was getting up too. Keith looked down at his sketchbook, ready to pack it, when he paused. At first he was confused, then a blush quickly made its way to his face.

Before him was a sketch of two blue eyes. Two incredibly familiar blue eyes. He always had a habit of drawing whatever he was thinking of. Especially if he was thinking hard about it. It seems like he was thinking of Lance’s eyes a little too much.

With a small growl Keith slammed his sketchbook shut. He harshly shoved it into his backpack as far down as he could. Well out of his own site. If he couldn’t see it, then he wouldn’t have to deal with it. With a huff he left the room, hoping his blush would go away before he found Adam. He didn’t need the adult trying to ask questions about his feelings.

Even if he believed that Adam actually cared he knew it wouldn’t matter. He knew it was only a matter of time before he had to leave again. Whether his time ran out or they kicked him out, usually the later, he would have to leave. He would have to leave behind any connections he may have made. Allowing any of them to see his emotions or get close to him would only hurt more.

So when Adam waved him over to the car he kept a blank face. While he tried to talk to Keith, the teen kept a blank face. When he entered the room of laughing and happy teens, excited for the upcoming competition he kept a blank face. When he saw Lance practice his flips and tumbles in the air, body twisting in impressive ways, smile as big as the room and eyes as bright as a star under the ocean, he kept a blank face. No matter how much he wished otherwise.