Work Text:
Keith is lying on the ground in the middle of the living room. Around him, presents are scattered on the carpeted floor. He’s looking up at the lights in the Christmas tree. If he closes his eyes, he can still see the dots behind his eyelids. He stays like this, enjoying the homey feeling hanging in the air. He hasn’t felt like that in a long, long time. Next to him, Shiro is resting against the couch, between Adam’s legs, who started drifting off a few minutes ago.
“If you could have any present in the world right now, what would you like to get?” Shiro asks.
Keith thinks about it for a moment. He thinks about everything he ever wanted as a child, and realises that the one thing he always wished for is right beside him. His brother is next to him, safe, and he lives with him and Adam. It’s a patched-up family, but a family all the same. There is something else he always wanted, though. He answers with:
“I’d have a dog. A big, fluffy dog who would run around in the garden and go chase foxes in the forest and make a mess and take a lot of space in the house.”
Shiro looks at him for a moment, an expression on his face that Keith can’t quite decipher. He ends up saying:
“You know what? If you run a marathon, I’ll buy you a dog myself.”
Keith’s eyes widen. He sits up. “Really?”
“Yeah, really. I’d like to see you do it, though. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you run more than one mile.”
Keith can’t believe it. He knows his brother said that because he hates running. I mean, who doesn’t? It’s infuriating and you just go nowhere and you always feel like death afterwards. Keith likes sport, sure, but he hates running. And he knows Shiro did this on purpose because, as the former captain of their university’s track team and a casual marathon-runner (the freak), running is like second nature for him. Whatever. As much as it could seem like a joke, he knows Shiro will hold his end of the bargain if Keith does too. And Keith is not one to back down from a challenge. Also, he really wants a dog.
That’s settled, then. Keith spends the rest of the evening thinking about it, and when he goes to bed at night, he’s already planning how he can achieve such an impossible task.
oOo
Keith’s first class of the year comes soon enough. He’s just fresh out of New Year’s Eve with Shiro and Adam–who were apparently too old to go out and decided to spend it with Keith instead–when he stands in front of the results of last year’s exams. He has just gotten out of his last lecture of the morning and is about to look for Allura when he sees his results in physics: he’s top of his class. He smiles to himself, happy and a little proud. Spotting strands of white hair, he’s about to call for his friend when he hears someone talking loudly just beside him:
“Man, I completely flunked physics… I can’t take it again next semester, I already have too many classes, and with the track team I have zero tim–”
Keith turns just as the voice–one he recognises hearing at the back of his physics class; the guy really is loud–stops abruptly, and sees him with his mouth open, eyes locked on… Allura. He sighs, barely stopping himself from rolling his eyes; at least he knows where his friend is. As he goes, he hears the guy’s friend saying:
“Lance, seriously, stop drooling. It’s embarrassing.”
“Shut up, Hunk!”
oOo
The next day, Keith has a physics class first thing on the morning. He’s one of the first in the room, and chooses a seat on the second row, closest to the door. He likes being the first one out to avoid bumping into other people, and being close to the professor allows him to pay attention to the class. Well, it helps that he’s interesting to listen to. He told them on the first day that his full name was Coran Hieronymus Wimbleton Smythen–“But call me Coran!”–, he’s got the biggest and orangest moustache Keith has ever seen, and Keith is almost positive that the reason the guy knows so much about physics is because he was there when most of it was discovered.
The class is about to start when someone arrives at the door, slightly out of breath.
“Lance! What a pleasure to have you in class, and right on time!” The professor singsongs. He looks delighted, and there’s a glint of mischief in his eye. “There’s a seat, right here on the first row!” He adds with a mischievous smile.
This Lance–which Keith realises is the same guy he saw yesterday ogling Allura–sits right in front of him, grumbling. He’s wearing one of those sport jackets that every member of the university’s sport teams swears by. His jacket reads “McClain” in big yellow letters, and Keith recognises it instantly from being the track team’s because Shiro wore the same one for years and would barely take it off to sleep.
The professor gives a student handouts to pass out to the rest of the class, and when they get to Lance, he takes one and turns around to give the stack of sheets to Keith.
“There you go, big boy!” he says with a big smile.
“Thanks,” Keith barely whispers, the words dying in his throat when he sees the open expression on Lance’s face. He gets lost in it for a second and then Lance turns back and the moment’s over and he’s left blushing and fumbling with the paper.
He spends the hour listening to Coran’s rant about electromagnetism and staring at those big yellow letters right in front of him. He thinks back to his conversation with Shiro the other day, and an idea begins to form in his mind. He ends up barely listening to the rest of his classes for the rest of the day, trying to figure out if this could really work.
He’s decided to give it a shot when, after classes, he decides to go to the library to study instead of going back home. He knows track practices don’t end until quite late at night, because he had to wait for Shiro almost every night when he was in high school, so he tries to get ahead in a few of his classes, since they already have some assignments planned.
At 8 pm, he’s sitting on the bleachers, looking at foreign faces finishing laps. When they start to leave, he finds the one he’s looking for, gathers up his courage, and goes to the brown-haired boy tying his shoelaces.
“Hi,” he says lamely, trying to push his anxiety at the back of his mind. Keith really doesn’t like talking to almost-strangers.
Lance looks up to him, the same smile ever-present on his face, “Hi Keith! Do you need something?”
Keith is flabbergasted. Lance knows his name? Now he kinda feels bad because he learned Lance’s name no earlier than this morning, when Coran called him out. He recovers quickly, though.
“Hi, yes, actually, I do.” He’s rambling, and he knows it’s the anxiety talking, but Lance doesn’t seem to mind, so Keith takes a second to gather his thoughts and spills: “Hm, so my brother promised to get me a dog if I run a marathon but obviously I’ve never run before in my life and I overheard you yesterday saying you almost failed your physics class, so I thought maybe you could teach me how to run and I could teach you physics?”
“Okay, please go slower next time because I did not follow anything you just said,” Lance laughs.
“My brother promised me a dog if I run a marathon, but I’ve never run before. I know you can help me because Shiro used to be in the track team and he runs marathons all the time–”
“Your Brother is Shiro? The Shiro? As in former-captain-who-won-three-championships Shiro?”
“Yeah, I mean–”
“Dude, your brother’s amazing!”
“He cried yesterday when we watched How to Train your Dragon. May I add that it was his idea to watch How to Train your Dragon.”
Lance just laughs at that. “Keith. Everyone cries during How to Train your Dragon. It’s a wonderful movie about growing up and learning to let go.”
“Waw. I didn’t know you were such a fan,” Keith snickers.
“I have a niece and a nephew and they’re six, shut up!” Lance cries out. “So, you need my help.” (He looks smug about it.) “Why don’t your brother help you?”
“Well clearly you’ve never run with Shiro.”
“I haven’t, or you wouldn’t stop hearing about it!”
“Anyway, he’s the one who came up with the idea, I don’t want to disappoint him, and I don’t really want him to know if I’m failing.”
“You can’t fail at running, Keith.”
“Clearly you’ve never run with me.”
Lance laughs again–and what’s with this guy and laughing, anyway? Keith knows he isn’t that funny–and says: “Okay, I’ll help you run a marathon.”
“I can help you as well!” he blurts in lieu of a thank you. “I mean, sorry if I’m overstepping here, but I overheard you earlier about the physics exam.”
“Oh man, don’t remind me…”
“I can help you study if you’d like. I’m quite good at physics.”
“Are you, now?”
“Yes, I’m top of the class, actually.”
“I know, Keith, that was the joke.”
“How do you know that?” Keith is starting to sweat. How does this guy know so much about him?
“Hm, you know the results are public, right? I usually like to know who I’m gonna be up against.”
Oh. It makes sense, actually. Keith usually just checks his own result and goes on with his life. He recovers quickly, though, and asks:
“So, what do you say? Are you in?”
“Well, I just won free tutoring in physics by the top of the class, how could I say no?” Lance says with a wink. “How do you want to do this?”
Keith ignores the little tug at the bottom of his stomach and says, “I’m free on Wednesday afternoon to study physics, if that’s okay with you.”
Lance checks his phone for a minute. “Yeah, that works for me! Are you free on Sunday mornings to go running?”
“Yeah.”
“Nice! Let’s meet back here next Sunday, we’ll go running in the forest behind the school. Will 10 am work for you?”
“Yes. Thank you for doing that, by the way. It’s probably going to take you a lot of time…”
“Don’t worry about it, I usually run on Sunday mornings anyway. Now I’ll just talk your ears off instead of speaking to myself.” He winks again, they exchange phone numbers, and just like that, he bids Keith goodbye and goes off in the dimly lit street just across the stadium.
When he goes home this evening, Keith is feeling good. He feels excited about life again; it had been a long time. He tells Adam as soon as he gets home:
“I’m running a marathon this year.”
“You’re what?” Adam is flabbergasted (it runs in the family). “Since when do you even run, Keith?”
“Shiro promised me a dog,” Keith says in lieu of an answer, as if that was enough reason, and Adam was the weird one for not seeing it.
“Oh my god, was he serious? Wait, you are too? Keith, what the fuck. I can’t believe I’m gonna be the last one in this house to have never run a marathon. I was counting on you,” he says with a smile on his face.
“Sorry you’re so lame. Will you help me sign up for it?”
They log on Adam’s computer to sign Keith up for a marathon in a few months, and Keith is practically bouncing when Shiro gets back. When keys are heard in the front door, he runs to him and shoves the computer in his face.
“Get ready to adopt the biggest puppy you’ve ever seen!”
Shiro takes a moment to read what’s on the screen, “Oh my god, Keith! You’re really doing it?”
“Yeah,” Keith says with a soft smile.
Shiro returns it. “I’m proud of you, baby bro.”
oOo
Next Sunday, Keith is nervously waiting for Lance on the edge of the forest. When Lance arrives, he waves at Keith and runs to him.
“Hi, Keith!”
“Hi, Lance.”
“So, before we start, have you done any sport? Just so I can understand where we’re standing with your training.”
“Hm, yeah, I have. I’ve always hated running so I’m not really good at that, but I’ve been practicing swordsmanship for a few years now.”
“Damn, you really are cool,” Lance says, looking slightly amazed.
“Why, you doubted it?”
Lance laughs, and Keith feels pride take over him.
“Can you show me one day?”
“Yeah, sure, if you’d like.”
“I would!” Lance says, grinning.
They look at each other for a second, and Lance is back with, “We’re gonna go slow today, I’m gonna see how well you can run. We’ll do intervals of running and walking. The goal is to do 6 miles.”
In the end, for someone who hates running this much, Keith isn’t too bad at it. He’s done quite a handful of sports in his life so he’s in good shape. When they’ve run around the entire forest, Lance calls it a day. Keith sits on the sidewalk, regaining his breath, and Lance says:
“Okay, that was great! For someone who never runs, you have good stamina! We can meet up every Sunday if you can, same time. You’ll have to run during the week as well. I run at least three times a week so if you want, we can run together sometimes!”
“That… would be fine… by me,” Keith says, still out of breath. “Would it be okay for you, though? Don’t you have stuff to do on the weekends? I wouldn’t want to steal all your time.”
“Nah, don’t worry about it! I can use it as practice. I always wanted a running buddy anyway; it gets boring after a while. Will it be okay for you? Don’t usually have things to do on Saturday nights?” Lance asks, wiggling his eyebrows.
“No, I usually stay home with my brother and his boyfriend. You never do things on weekend nights?”
“I have to practice almost every day, especially on the weekend, so I’m always up at the crack of dawn on Sundays.”
“10 am isn’t the crack of dawn, Lance.”
“I need my beauty sleep.”
Keith raises one eyebrow and chuckles at that.
oOo
“Hey, Keithy boy!”
Keith startles. He’s sitting in the library, getting ahead in his work. He had been sitting in silence for so long that he almost jumps when he hears Lance’s voice behind his back. He turns around, his eyes falling on a smiling face.
“Hi, Lance. Please have a seat,” Keith answers while moving his notebooks around to make room for Lance’s stuff. And boy does this guy have a lot. Lance is barely sitting when he’s already unpacking, taking out notebooks and notebooks out of his bag.
“What the fuck?” Keith says.
“I have a system. Shush,” Lance retorts.
Once everything is set up on the table (80% of it belonging to Lance), they get to work. Keith starts with questions to understand Lance’s level, and then they go over the basics. They’re going over field potential and potential energies right now, and Lance is having trouble understanding the Gauss theorem. Keith, luckily, has no problem with that, so they go over it quite quickly. They also take some time to go over last semester’s lessons, to make sure Lance knows everything he needs to know. Lance asks a lot of questions, which Keith is grateful for, because he can really get what type of things Lance doesn’t understand.
In the end, they work until it’s night out, both completely lost in physics. At one point, Lance’s stomach starts to growl, and he checks the time on his phone.
“Man, I’m sorry I kept you so long… Aren’t you gonna be late?”
“It’s okay, I told Shiro not to wait for me today.”
“Damn, your brother is really nice. My mom would kill me if I was late for dinner.”
“It’s just the three of us, and he’s out late working most days anyway, so it’s fine. Will it be okay with your mom?”
“Oh, I don’t live at home anymore. I have an apartment across campus, I can go home any time. Well, I still live with Hunk, and he’s not gonna be too happy about that.”
They chat all the way out of the library, and just as Lance is turning around to say goodbye, Keith says:
“I can walk you home if you want. My house is this way anyway,” he adds when Lance starts to open his mouth to refuse.
“Yeah, okay. I could use someone to walk with in the dark.”
They walk in relative silence for a few minutes, Lance speaking up here and there, and then Lance stops in front of a building:
“Well, that’s me. Thank you for walking me home. Please text me when you get to yours, I wouldn’t want my bodyguard to get kidnapped,” he winks, a big smile on his face. He waves goodbye to Keith, and enters the building.
Keith stays there for a few seconds, lost in his thoughts. He replays the whole afternoon in his head, and gets a warm feeling all over him. It had been long since the last time he made a friend, and he likes how loud Lance is. Listening to him makes it impossible for his thoughts to get the better of him. It’s a nice feeling. He smiles for the rest of the walk home.
He texts Lance during dinner and goes to bed early. It takes him hours to fall asleep.
oOo
They’re in their physics class a few weeks later. Lance is seated next to Keith on the second row, a habit he took two weeks ago when he realised he could bother Keith during their study sessions and during classes. Coran just gave them ten minutes to work on something when Lance whispers:
“By the way, my friends are coming to the library on Wednesday. With midterms coming I haven’t seen them a lot and we thought a group study session would be a nice way to spend time together.”
“Oh. Yeah, okay, no problem,” Keith says, having very much of a problem with meeting strangers on such short notice while being the only ‘outsider’ of the group. It will be good to step out of his comfort zone, though. He’ll just ask Allura if she can come as well; it’ll make things easier at the very least.
“Cool! I’ll let them know!”
When Lance runs to the cafeteria as soon as the bell rings, Keith waits for Allura. They decide to brave the cold today and sit outside. When Allura takes her first bite, Keith asks:
“Are you free next Wednesday afternoon?”
“Yeah, I am. But don’t you usually have your study dates with Lance on Wednesdays?”
“He’s inviting his friends to our study session this week; I just don’t want to be the only guy who isn’t part of their group,” he explains. “And they’re not dates! We’re helping each other out.”
She sends him a look saying ‘sure, buddy, keep telling yourself that’, but eventually answers:
“I’ll come, of course.” She really is the best.
“Thanks.”
oOo
The next day, Keith enters the library feeling a little sick in his stomach. He’s thankful for Allura beside him. He spots Lance easily enough, when he hears someone shout-whispers and someone else shushing him right after.
“Well at least you’re easy to spot,” Keith says when he reaches him. “Hi, Lance.”
“Hey! I will not tolerate this slander!” Lance protests when he hears Keith. “Hello, Keith,” he says as Keith takes a seat next to him. “And hello to you too, beautiful lady,” he adds when he sees Allura, “please have a seat. And what would be your name?”
“I’m Allura,” she tells the whole group. She doesn’t return the obvious flirting but does send Keith a look saying ‘so this is your type?’. Keith decides to ignore her. Lance’s friends take this as invitation to introduce themselves:
“Hello, please ignore Lance. I’m Hunk, and this is Pidge,” he says, pointing to a pair of large glasses behind a computer.
“Hi,” Pidge says, barely looking away from her screen, furiously typing something. “If you try hard enough it’ll just be white noise at one point.” She lifts her head when she’s done and smile shyly at the newcomers.
“Hey, not nice!” Lance looks almost offended.
“Don’t worry, I don’t think I could ever get used to your volume,” Keith mocks him. Lance pouts in response, and they get to work.
Allura ends up chatting with Hunk and Pidge the whole afternoon. Apparently, putting one biology major and two robotics majors in the same room can lead to very interesting debates, including ‘at what point can a robot be considered a human, if technology is sufficiently advanced and you can put human parts in it’, or ‘can you really be considered human if most of your body has been replaced by technological parts’.
Keith listens with one ear while he explains the principles of the electrostatic dipole to Lance, and the only conclusion he can come up with is:
“Let’s pray our friends never use their amazing intelligence for evil or we’re all dead.”
“Please never mention that to Pidge, I wouldn’t want her to get any idea,” Lance answers. He looks genuinely frightened at the idea.
The afternoon comes and goes, and soon it’s dinner time. They ended up working for quite a while, and Lance has to stop his friends mid-rant to remind them that they need to go if they want to be able to grab something at the cafeteria before it closes.
“Oh, I’m terribly sorry, I didn’t see the time,” Allura says when she realises how late it is.
“Don’t be, it was great talking to you,” Pidge says. She looks super excited, which is very different from her shy attitude at the beginning of their study session. Keith gets that, talking about something you like that much can really make someone open up.
“Yeah, we should definitely do that sometimes again,” Hunk chimes in.
Lance turns to Keith at this moment and tells him: “I think our friends just became best friends, but like, without us.”
“Yeah. I did not see that coming.”
They all get up and out of the library, go through the cafeteria real quick, and walk to Hunk and Lance’s building. Just as they’re about to part ways, Lance says, more out of habit than anything else:
“Text me when you’re home, okay?”
Hunk giggles at that and sends Lance a look that Keith almost misses.
“Yeah, sure,” he says to Lance, and just like that, Lance and his friends are gone.
Keith starts for his own house, Allura on his tail. As soon as they’re out of earshot, she says:
“I had a great time! Lance’s friends are very nice, I hope we’ll get to see them again soon!”
“I hope too,” Keith smiles, feeling a bit of blush creeping on his cheeks. He’ll blame the cold if anyone asks.
oOo
They get used to their little routine. Keith learns a lot about Lance when they run. Since Lance is accustomed to this, he can talk and run at the same time, and regals Keith with stories about his childhood, his (very big) family, and all the shenanigans they got up to. Keith opens up a little bit about himself as well, when they have walking breaks. It’s hard at first, but it becomes almost second nature to share a childhood memory about him and Shiro when Lance just spent an hour telling him about that time he dressed his niece and nephew as Smurfs for Halloween, and how bad they got scolded when the blue wouldn’t wash out.
Keith comes to the realisation that he really likes Lance. Maybe even like likes him. Sure, he’s loud and sometimes Keith struggles to get up with all his shenanigans, but he’s really nice, he’s dedicated and hard-working, and the way he talks about his family always makes Keith feel like he’s almost a part of it. Overall, he just has fun every time they hang out. One day, when they have finished running, Lance is telling him about a place he ate at with his family, when they were on vacation on some foreign island. He’s just about to tell Keith about what his brother did when he stops himself to ask:
“By the way, wouldn’t it be nice to eat together one day? Bring Allura! Hunk and Pidge wanted to try the new pizzeria that opened last week.”
Oh. Yeah, of course. A pang shoots through his heart. Well, he should have known, anyway. It’s actually good that he realised Lance was into Allura before he got too invested in a relationship that would have probably not left his head. He still likes Lance as a friend, and is very grateful for his presence in his life. He tries to focus on that when he says:
“Yeah, that’d be great! I’ll let her know.”
When he texts Allura this evening, he gets a very enthusiastic response, and only hope that he’ll get over his little crush very soon; he really likes these people and would love to keep this little group of friends.
oOo
On Thursday, they all meet at the pizza place. When Keith and Allura arrive, the rest of the group is already here. Pidge is sitting at the end of the table, and Lance and Hunk are sitting across from each other. They all say hello, and Allura, being closest to the table, sits first, next to Lance. Keith takes the seat beside Hunk, across from her. Lance starts to chat with Allura immediately, and Keith tries to tune their conversation out. Thankfully, Hunk, who was talking to Pidge up until now, turns to him and starts talking about a boardgame they like to play.
“The goal is to form a giant robot called Voltron. You have to gather five lions to do so, and there are lots of different cards with objects and traps. It’s more fun when we’re at least five players, and Lance isn’t really good, so we’d like the extra help.”
“Hey!” They hear Lance protests, “I could totally kick Keith’s ass, at least.”
“We’ll see next time we play, loverboy,” Hunk answers.
Lance opens his mouth again, probably to defend his honour, but is interrupted by the waitress coming to take their order.
When the waitress goes, Allura excuses herself to the restroom, and Pidge, who had been explaining the rules of Voltron to Keith, goes back to robot talk with Hunk. Lance sends a look at Keith and whispers:
“You see what I have to deal with on a daily basis?” Keith smiles as an answer, and Lance continue: “Thank you for being here today. It’s nice to have someone else who doesn’t understand shit about all that.”
“Who’s saying I don’t understand?”
“Oh, shut up,” Lance says. He shoves Keith, but there’s a smile and a soft expression on his face.
Keith is smiling too, and they look at each other for a minute. The moment ends when Allura comes back. Lance breaks eye contact, and moves so she has enough space to sit. Keith feels a little blush creeping, and promptly avoid Lance’s gaze, focusing instead on Allura.
Allura starts the conversation again, a questioning look towards Keith. Keith doesn’t say anything, and he mostly listen to the chatter until their food arrive.
When the topic of movies comes around, this time, Keith is a lot more attentive. And when Pidge starts to talk about alien movies, Keith cannot stop himself. He shares his own alien cinematographic culture and a lot of documentaries about cryptids. Lance looks horrified during the whole conversation, and Pidge looks like she’s never met someone more interesting than Keith her entire life. Keith feels the same; it’s rare to find people who like that kind of stuff. They end up talking about the movies they’d like to see in the future, and once again, Keith has a lot to say about it: he loves bad movies–like, objectively terrible movies–, and there’s a lot he has yet to see. He tells Pidge as much, and she looks delighted. Keith thinks he sees her taking notes of some titles. He hears faintly Allura telling Lance:
“Usually I’m the one he spends hours talking about all the terrible movies he watches. It’s nice that he’s got someone else to talk about that, now,” she jokes.
When they’re done, they wait for each other outside. Keith is the first out. Lance comes out soon after.
“It’s amazing all the things I learn about you when you’re not too out of breath to talk,” he winks.
“Oh, fuck you,” Keith says, but the smile in his voice betrays him. Lance just laughs, and when their friends are all here, they say goodbye and each go their own way.
On their way to their next class, Allura snickers and sends him a look heavy with implication. Keith ignores her; this is becoming a habit and he doesn’t like it.
oOo
A few weeks into their arrangement, Keith is starting to really feel the change in his body. Every Sunday he runs, he feels his body getting stronger. He doesn't always run further each week, but he can feel that he is getting better, and that is all that really counts.
One week, however, they have to press pause on their training. On the first week of March, Keith catches a cold so bad he can barely get out of bed. Shiro is worried sick, even though Keith keeps repeating him it is not that bad. He had insisted on taking a few days off to look after Keith, but Adam had convinced him not to, as he would be home most of the time anyway.
Keith had started feeling really sick on Thursday, but had pushed through his morning classes. He was free on Thursday afternoons, so he had gone home and decided to skip Friday when he had woken up feeling worse than dead. They have physics on Friday, so he receives a myriad of texts first thing in the morning:
From: Lance
Keith. It is 8:03 am and you’re not in class.
Have you been abducted by aliens???
You’re never late.
What happened to you???
Keith sighs, used to Lance being dramatic, and gathers everything he still has in him to grab his phone and answer:
From: Keith
I’m sick. Don’t worry, the aliens haven’t found my address yet. Might not be able to run this Sunday, tho, sorry.
From: Lance
Aw, man, sorry to hear that. How bad is it?
From: Keith
Shiro threatened to take a day off. Thank God Adam convinced him not to. If this cold doesn’t kill me, Shiro’s cooking would have.
Keith receives several laughing faces and when nothing else arrives, he decides on a nap. He wakes up several hours later, has a late lunch with Adam–who works from home today to check on him–and goes back to the couch this time, well intended on napping again. He’s just about to drift off again when the doorbell rings. He startles awake, and hears Adam come down the stairs, pestering about whoever is disrupting them. Keith hears him talking to the person on the other side of the door, and then hears two voices in the house. His eyes are barely opened when he distinctly hears Lance talking to him:
“Hi, Keith! How are you holding up?”
“Lance,” he whispers, “what are you doing here? Is this a dream?”
“Would it be a good dream?”
“Yesss,” Keith answers, already drifting off. He feels more than he sees someone putting a blanket on him and then he’s falling asleep again.
When he wakes up again, the sun is setting, and someone is seated next to him, ruffling through pieces of paper.
“Oh, good, you’re awake,” Lance says.
Keith turns around and finds himself facing Lance. On his couch. Reading something resembling mathematics.
“What the fuck,” is all he can say.
“Hello to you too, sleeping beauty. How are you feeling?”
“Okay, I guess.”
“Do you feel up to eat something? I wanted to make us hot cocoa but I don’t know where you keep all your stuff.”
Keith leads him to the kitchen, sits, and lets Lance do his thing. Lance talks while he gets everything ready, Keith only getting involved to tell him in which cupboards the things are.
They go back to the couch, hot cocoa and biscuits ready.
“How do you feel about a movie?” Lance asks.
“I don’t think I can do anything where I have to think, so a movie is good.”
“Do you want to watch Sharknado? I remember you talked about it when we ate pizza with the others.”
Keith feels warm spread all over him. This crush will be harder to get over if Lance keeps doing things like that, like going to see him when he’s sick, making him hot cocoa and remembering details about movies he likes. He tries to get a hold of himself, though.
“You… want to watch… Sharknado?”
“I mean, I looked up the trailer and it looks like the worst movie ever, but you seemed to like it, so…”
“Oh, you’ll see, it’s a great movie.”
“By your standards,” Lance deadpans.
“My standards are excellent, thank you very much,” Keith coughs.
Keith is smiling now–as much as he can while spitting his own lungs–, and he gives his laptop to Lance so that he can set up the movie on the TV. They watch the movie and drink hot cocoa. Lance keeps a commentary running during the entire movie, unintentionally keeping Keith awake.
When the movie’s over, Keith is drifting back to sleep again. Lance smiles softly, puts the blanket back on him, and bids him goodnight, saying that he’ll run for the two of them on Sunday.
“Sweet dreams,” Keith hears Lance say before his eyes close again.
When Keith wakes up again, it’s pitch-black outside. The only light is coming from the desk on the other side of the living room, where Shiro sits, reading something on his laptop.
“Stop sitting with your laptop in the dark, it’s gonna ruin your eyesight. I don’t want to take you everywhere you need to go by the time you’re thirty-five,” Keith says.
Shiro looks up when he hears his brother’s voice, and goes to him.
“Sorry, I didn’t want to wake you up.” He looks apologetic, as if Keith wasn’t the one making fun of him a minute ago. “How are you feeling?”
“Better,” Keith says. “I think sleeping helps.”
“Good. Who was there earlier? Adam told me a friend came by to make hot cocoa or something.”
“That was Lance. We run together every Sunday. We watched Sharknado today.”
“Keith, what the fuck?”
“What?”
“Why do you want your friends to hate you? I was so proud you had a new one, but he’s gonna run away now,” Shiro jokes.
“Sharknado is a fun movie.”
“Sure, buddy.”
Shiro leaves him to rest a little bit before dinner, and Keith thinks. Shiro’s right, objectively it’s a bad movie, and Keith wouldn’t let himself be known like that if he was scared of being rejected. He thinks back to the day they all went eating together, and thinks about how easily these people have made themselves a place in his life, and in his heart. He’s glad to call them his friends, and he hopes it will stay like that for a long, long time. He thinks back to Lance coming to his house the second he heard Keith was sick, and wonders what he did to deserve such attention (“Nothing”, he hears a voice resembling Adam telling him. “Everyone deserves to be loved and taken care of. It’s not something you earn; you deserve it by virtue of existing.”).
oOo
After that, they grow even closer. April comes and they fall back into their routine easily enough. They talk a little bit more at the end of each running session, they go to lunch together sometimes, and more and more, Lance’s friends end up coming to their study sessions, and they all work together. Keith is terrified, but he also thinks he’s never loved something so much before. All this fear is worth it, he thinks, if it means that he gets to have friends and be part of a group.
Keith thinks very much less about his wonderful friends when he sits before his first exam sheet on a Monday morning. Today’s first torture is maths. He’s an anxious mess, but he tries to keep it together and remember as much as he can about how to define the domain of convergence of function sequences. He doesn’t really have time to finish, in the end, but he still thinks he did an okay job.
The next day, the exam is physics, so he loses no time and finishes writing about fields and magnetic forces before everyone else. He catches sight of Lance when he leaves the room, who is chewing on his pen and thinking hard about what appears to be one of the last questions. He smiles to himself, happy to see that Lance has gotten a lot better, if he can finish the exam in the allocated time.
His good mood turns sour the second he remembers that, now that the exams have passed, he doesn’t really have a reason to hang out with Lance every Wednesday. Last Sunday was their last running session as well, as the marathon is next weekend. He remembers telling Lance good luck for his exams on Sunday, after spending their run barely talking. Lance hadn’t seemed to mind, probably thinking Keith was anxious about the week of exams awaiting them.
But now Keith’s thoughts are back running around in his head. What does that mean for their friendship? He goes home that night with a twinge of sadness, and it makes him feel defeated to know that, now that they don’t have to see each other, he doesn’t know what it means to be friends.
The rest of the week passes like a blur. He doesn’t see Lance, and has lunch with Allura only once.
oOo
Sunday comes, and it’s already time to run! Shiro is awake at the crack of dawn and jumps on Keith’s bed–while Keith is in it–at 8 am as a way of saying hello. When his fractured bones are healed–“You’re such a drama queen”, Shiro had said–, Keith gets out of bed and dressed for the race. Adam takes them to the car, and when they’re here, the brothers go find their bib before getting in line.
They see Adam behind barriers, waving at them, and Keith understands the pride he sees in Adam’s eyes. They’re going to run a marathon! That’s amazing! He’s so glad he’s doing this, even though he thinks he will change his mind after running for three hours.
A gunshot rings, and everyone moves. Keith loses Shiro after maybe five minutes of trying to keep up with him. He sees his brother giving him a thumbs up and a big smile before going on with the faster runners.
When he reaches the halfway mark, Keith is starting to seriously doubt this whole idea. Right now, he would do almost anything to just fall on the floor face first and never move again. He feels his entire body crying, his lungs want more air, his legs want to take a fucking break. He is about to just walk for a mile or two when he hears his name being called very loudly.
“KEEEEEITH!!!”
He follows the voice, and sees… Lance? He’s waving his arms like crazy, almost punching his neighbour in the face, who’s so little Keith almost doesn’t see who it is… It takes him a second to realise that not only Lance, but Pidge, Hunk and Allura are also here, cheering for him. Hunk has a water bottle in his hand, so Keith goes up to them, waves a little and gladly takes the bottle. He drinks, then throws the bottle back to Lance, who catches it and feigns swooning over it. Keith chuckles, and almost falls down on the ground. He catches himself up mid-drop, and goes on, ignoring the red in his cheeks from the embarrassment. He feels better knowing his friends came by to encourage him, that Lance was screaming his name, and from drinking, too (his throat was dying). He still struggles a lot to run the last three miles, but he doesn’t give up. He thinks about Lance, about Shiro, who was so proud when he told him he was running, and about the dog he’s gonna get when this is all over.
He crosses the finish line, and he’s never felt prouder.
He stops for a minute, trying to regain his breath but also to soak in everything that’s happening around him. The effervescence of everyone running, cheering, the sense of accomplishment hanging in the air. He can’t stop smiling.
The moment breaks when someone shrieks in his direction, the same voice as before:
“Keeeith, you did it!”
He barely has time to register who’s there when a body slams onto him, and he almost falls down again.
“That was amazing! You’re amazing!” It’s the loud voice again.
“Congrats, Keith,” someone else says at the same time.
“I’m very proud of you, you did really good,” a British voice adds.
Keith is too busy hugging Lance to realise that everyone is here and without thinking, still high on adrenaline and happiness, he lifts Lance in the air and twirls him around. When he puts him down, he starts to panic for a second, wondering what Lance will think of it, but before he can give it much more thought, Lance is gripping his hands and celebrating, and Keith forgets about it.
“You ran a marathon,” he hears Lance shout. “That’s incredible! I’m such a good teacher, I should do that professionally.”
“Don’t push it, Lance,” Pidge says, but she’s smiling.
Hunk is almost crying–Keith sees an actual tear rolling down his eye–when he congratulates Keith, and Allura pats him on the shoulder, a soft smile on her lips.
They spend a few minutes talking to each other–and Keith can’t help but notice that Lance’s hands don’t let go–and then Shiro is there, Adam holding his hand, and Lance almost forgets how to talk, before quickly gathering himself and spending the next half hour talking excitedly to him. They talk about track stuff, so Keith loses track of the conversation very quickly.
“Thank you for coming, by the way. I had no idea you’d be here!”
“Of course,” Hunk says, “we wouldn’t miss it! Lance couldn’t stop talking about it, and we were excited to see how well you would do!”
“I have to say, I am impressed,” Pidge adds. “I could never do something like that, so congrats again!”
“Thanks,” Keith says.
When Lance and Shiro are back, they all say goodbye and Shiro, Adam and Keith go back to their car while the rest of them go to Hunk’s. When they’re home, Keith goes straight to the shower and spends an hour under the hot water.
oOo
The next day, Keith pulls aside all thoughts of Lance, because today is doggo day! He wakes up at the crack of dawn (or, really, as early as he can when his body needs a week-worth of rest after what happened yesterday) and goes to Shiro’s bedroom to jump on him (fair is fair).
“Oof!”
“Wake up, wake up!” Keith singsongs. “Today is doggo day!”
Shiro grumbles, but does get out of bed and in the car.
“Why do hate me so much, Keith?” Shiro says when they’re on their way. “I ran 26 miles yesterday.”
“And you think I didn’t?”
“How are you even up right now? My legs are barely holding the pedals…”
“Don’t crash the car yet, I don’t have my dog!”
Shiro sends him a look, but refrains from commenting when he sees the big smile on Keith’s face. They get to the adoption centre, and Shiro starts talking while Keith goes to look around. He thinks he hears Shiro talking about wanting something sturdy, and when he tunes back in, the front desk lady is almost finished:
“We need your name and address at the bottom of the form,” she says to Shiro while he takes the pen she’s giving him. Her name tag indicates she’s named Susan. She then addresses Keith when she says: “The kennel’s back this way.”
She opens the hatch and Keith goes to explore his options.
“Hello?” he asks the cages. “Are there any animals in here?”
All the dogs seem to have disappeared. He walks slowly, trying to understand what’s happening, when he suddenly hears a rapid tap, tap, tap of paws on the tiles, a sniffle, and next thing he knows, a black ball of fur is running towards him. It stops just before crushing him, sits, and Keith is nose to nose with a beautiful black and white wolf-looking thing with blue-ish alien-like spots around his eyes. Those two eyes are watching him intently, while a tail is going crazy in the background.
“Hi,” Keith whispers. The dog waits two second before jumping on Keith and crushing him. “Waw,” he smiles. When the dog gets off of him, he goes back to the front of the shop with him.
“Yes, yes, all of our dogs are adoptable,” he hears Susan talking to Shiro. She turns to Keith, sees the dog, and yells: “Except for that one!”
She feels conflicted between running away from the shop and restraining the dog. Keith sees her hesitating for two seconds before duty wins and she tries to get the dog off of Keith. Shiro looks from Keith to Susan to the dog, and looks completely lost.
Susan gets a grip of the dog; she tries to hold him back, but he resists, showing fang-like teeth and growling. Okay, Shiro looks downright terrified now.
“What is that thing?” Shiro asks.
“A dog, I think? Maybe a wolf? But it wasn’t here this morning.”
“It wasn’t here this morning?”
“Well, we’ve never registered him, that’s for sure!”
“I like him!” Keith exclaims. “Come here, boy!”
The wolf-like dog escapes the poor lady and jumps on Keith. He shows all his teeth in what appears to be a smile. Shiro does not look as pleased as Keith.
“Wouldn’t you like a different dog?”
“We have better dogs, dear,” Susan advocates.
“Not better than him!”
Shiro gives Keith a look saying he is contemplating all his life decisions.
“Does it have to be this dog?”
Keith looks at the dog, who’s currently drooling on the lady and trying to eat its own boogers.
“Yes, he’s good. I can tell.”
And that’s all there is, really. Shiro takes the form from Susan while Keith scratches his new friend’s head.
“You’ll have to think of a name for him,” she says.
“His name is Kosmo.”
“Kosmo it is.” She appears to be silently judging him. Whatever.
She signs something on the form and says:
“And there’s a 2$ licence fee.”
Keith gets his wallet out, hands Susan the fee, and one rubber stamp later, the deal is concluded.
“He’s all yours!”
She sounds a little too happy about it, and then she hands him the paper. Keith holds it close to his chest, letting the happy feeling wash over him. They get out, back into the car, and Keith spends the entire ride with Kosmo on his legs, scratching his head.
oOo
The following week, Keith is on holidays, so he spends his time running around with his dog, showing him the house, the forest nearby, and overall, just spending time with him. He tries not to think about Lance or the fact that they haven’t talked in a few days.
He does end up thinking about it, though. When he’s alone in his room, at night, there’s nothing stopping his thoughts from coming for him. Now that they don’t have a reason to hang out, he really doesn’t know what to say to Lance, or how to ask him to spend time with him. He feels defeated. He is also scared of what it means for their friendship. He doesn’t think they’re friends “enough” to justify seeing each other for no reason. Or at least he thinks Lance doesn’t.
oOo
But the holidays come to an end soon enough, and in no time, he is back, once again, in front of the results of his pre-holiday exams. He has yet to go into his first class. The first thing he searches for are physics results. He is relieved to see that he made top of the class again, but even more so when he sees Lance’s score, which is above average. He passed! Keith thinks about texting him, but doesn’t know what to say… (If he’s honest with himself, it’s more because he’s scared Lance won’t answer.) He ends up looking for his other results; he passed everything, even though some of his results are a little bit disappointing.
Deciding to put all of this at the back of his head until tonight, he heads into his first lecture of the day. When lunch comes around, he’s about to step out of the classroom when he sees Lance coming to him. He starts to panic, but before he can run a million scenario in his head, as usual, Lance starts talking really fast, and Keith has to forget about his worry to follow his friend’s train of thoughts. Everything he needs to know is that Lance wanted to talk to him, so all hope is not lost!
“Keith, my dude! I haven’t seen you in forever, what have you been up to? Me, I had the best vacation! I couldn’t go home, so Hunk and I recreated the beach in our apartment, it was super fun! Well, except when we had to vacuum all the fake sand. Oh, and by the way, I passed the result board on my way here, and I passed physics! That’s entirely thanks to you, man, so really, thank you for your help!”
“It really wasn’t a problem, I’m really happy you passed! You worked hard for it, so you deserve it.”
“I saw you’re top of the class again!”
“Yeah, well, not everything has to change, you know.”
Lance laughs, and continues:
“I’ll really have to thank Shiro for thinking about getting you a dog if you ran. Can’t say I’m not happy with where it got me! Oh, speaking of dog! Did you get one?”
“Yeah, we went to the shelter with Shiro last week, and I took one home. His name is Kosmo. I’ve only had him for a week and a half but if anything happens to him, I will kill everyone in this school and then myself. Would you like to see a picture?”
Lance looks mildly concerned by Keith’s rant but seems to consider it appropriate when he says: “Hell yeah, I would!”
The picture turns out to be pictures when Keith takes out his phone. He shows Lance pictures of Kosmo sitting in the grass, running in the forest, napping on the couch, drinking in the river, jumping in a flower fields. Keith loves his dog, okay?
“This guy looks like he has a lot of energy,” Lance says when he’s been shown almost a hundred pictures of a dog running around everywhere. “Do you take him on runs sometimes?”
“Yeah, he is unstoppable. I don’t think I could ever run faster than him,” Keith says with a smile.
Lance seems almost sheepish when he continues:
“Speaking of running, would you like to go running, one day? You could take Kosmo with you if you’d like. It’s weird to run alone again, you know. I got used to your presence, and to have someone to talk to. And I mean, it’s been a while since we last hung out! You seemed very busy, so I didn’t want to bother you.”
Keith is floored by the news. Maybe Lance does consider him his friend, after all, and Keith has just been a bad friend by taking for granted what he thought was the truth. He feels terrible that Lance was probably hurt by his behaviour, and promises himself that, in the future, he’ll pay close attention to the people in his life and will actually talk to them about their relationship, to be sure that no one feels left alone. He won’t let his anxiety damage his friendships with other people.
“I’m so sorry,” he tells Lance after a few second of internal dialogue. The earnest tone of Lance’s voice helps him to say what he really thinks. “I did want to see you again, I just didn’t know how to ask you, since we don’t have any reason to see each other now.”
“What do you mean, no reason?” Lance looks hurt, and Keith feels like he’s losing at this conversation stuff.
“I mean I didn’t think you’d want to see me that much since our deal is done, but I was an idiot since apparently it’s not the case at all. Sorry. I’d love to go running with you. I missed it as well, even though I still don’t really like running. But I do like spending time with you, and Kosmo needs to run, so that’s a great idea, actually.”
Lance looks at him for the entirety of his rant, not interrupting. He studies Keith’s face, but Keith is a little scared of what he might see, so he looks away the entire time. When he’s finished, he looks back to Lance, finding a soft smile on his lips. He’s relieved to see no anger.
“Well, at least we’re on the same page now. I do want to be your friend, Keith, even if you’re not helping me for something, you know?”
“Yeah, sorry, I know. Me too, by the way.”
“It’s fine, don’t worry. So, see you Sunday? Same place, same time?”
“Yeah, okay!”
oOo
Sunday comes, and Keith is nervous. He wakes up, can barely eat anything for breakfast, and is as stiff as a board while he gets ready. But when he tells Kosmo they’re going on a walk, and his dog starts to jump around and bark, he can only smile and forget about his worries, if only for a moment.
He’s at the forest first, and he waits for Lance by playing with Kosmo’s fur. The dog, while eager to run around, seems to appreciate the attention, and sits relatively still. Lance must have caught sight of them first, because Keith suddenly hears his name being called while the voice approaches him very fast. He sees Lance running towards him, and as he’s about to say hello–and probably catch the guy in his arms if he doesn’t stop running–, Lance drops on his knees in front of Kosmo:
“Hellooo! You’re so pretty! Tell me, tell me, who’s a good boy?”
Keith is air, clearly. But he can’t even be mad at Lance, because he would have reacted exactly the same. Kosmo is delighted by the attention, and tries to lick Lance every chance he gets.
When Lance gets up, he acknowledges Keith and sends him a shy smile.
“Hi, Keith. Your dog is even cuter in person.”
“Hi, Lance. Thanks,” he smiles too. He feels like he should say something, like Lance is expecting something of him, but nothing comes to mind. He shakes his head when he realises he’s been staring for a while, and says: “Ready to go?”
Lance smiles for a second, and Keith feels something stir in his chest. Lance says: “Sure!” and they’re off. He chats Keith’s ears off, as per usual, and overall, they pick up where they left off the last time they ran. Keith is pleasantly surprised that they are able to find their rhythm again, and he hopes that all of this can continue for a long, long time. A few miles in, Kosmo is getting tired, so they go back to walking. Keith, not having the excuse of running anymore, is trying to think of something to say, but as always, Lance beats him to it:
“You know…” he says, looking very unsure of himself, “I’m very happy you agreed to go running today. I mean, we didn’t talk during the holidays, and I was scared you’d gotten tired of hanging out with me.” He shoots on a rock, and keeps looking down.
Keith is floored: “How could I get tired of you?”
“People have before,” Lance says, bittersweet.
Keith feels a twinge of guilt at that. He decides honesty ought to be the best policy in this case:
“I haven’t, I promise. I didn’t talk to you during the holidays because I was afraid of being too clingy. I thought maybe you’d like to be friends, but not necessarily want to see me every other day. I was trying to give you space.”
Lance laughs weakly at that. “Trust me, I don’t think you could be as clingy as me. I mean, I literally spend our time together talking and talking, I invite you to lunch all the time. Every time I was afraid that deep down you didn’t like me that much.”
“Of course I do!” Keith says, with a little too much enthusiasm. He tries to brush it off as inconsequential. “I’m sorry about that. I have a lot of anxiety, and sometimes I just don’t know what to say, or be brave enough to ask you first. But I do enjoy talking to you. It’s good that you talk so much, I don’t feel bad for not participating as much.”
Lance looks at him with wide eyes.
“You like that I talk all the time?”
“Yeah, actually. My head is always full of thoughts, and it’s easy to get lost in them, but when you talk, I’m focused on you, and I can escape the mess that’s in my head.”
“Oh. Well, that’s good to hear. I felt bad for obsessing over you and pestering you to hang out. Hunk was so mad every time I talked to him about it. He was all like ‘cut your bullshit Lance’, ‘your crush is embarrassing, Lance’, ‘just ask him out already’,” Lance laughs.
Oh.
Oh.
Wait. What?
“What crush?”
Lance seems to realise what he just said, and turns bright red.
“Uh, I mean…” He’s fumbling with his hands, trying to think of something to say.
“I thought you liked Allura?”
“WHAT? No, no, no,” Lance panics, “she’s waaay out of my league, this girl is like a goddess, I don’t think I could handle being with her, she’s just so… you know?”
“Yeah, weirdly, I know.”
Keith takes a breath and gathers all his courage to ask the next question:
“So, you like me?” He feels his face turn bright red just as the words leave his mouth.
“Yeah, I have for a while, now. I’m surprised you never picked up on it, I thought I was so obvious. I’ve wanted to tell you, but I wanted to be alone with you–you know, in case it didn’t end well–and I didn’t know how to be, since we weren’t running anymore, and so–”
“I like you too,” Keith blurts out, not wanting to leave Lance hanging, not wanting to give him a reason to think otherwise.
“You do?” he says, voice full of hope with a hint of insecurity.
“Yeah, I do. I mean, it’s hard not to, you know. You’re really great.”
“You think so?”
“I mean, I ran a marathon thanks to you, I’d be a fool to think otherwise.”
Lance smiles, seemingly at a loss for words, and then:
“Thanks,” he says.
“Can’t believe you thanked me after I told you I liked you,” Keith smirks. Now that he processed the information, and that he knows that his crush is requited, he feels more at ease to tease Lance.
“Hey! I told you first!” Lance protests. He slaps Keith’s arm playfully. Kosmo barks, startling the two. They stopped walking as the conversation went on, and Kosmo is getting tired of waiting, apparently.
“Maybe we should go,” Keith says.
“Yeah,” Lance answers. He looks almost disappointed for a second, but then he’s up again and there’s a fire in his eyes and he blurts: “Can I kiss you?”
“What?” Keith can only say, too taken aback by the sudden question.
“Never mind,” Lance starts to say, “we don’t have to, bye–”
“No, no, it’s okay! Sorry, I didn’t expect it, that’s all.” Keith is sure he’s red again. Oh God. Nobody ever told him that love was so awkward. But if that is what it takes to be with Lance, he guesses he can learn to live with it.
To emphasise his point, he takes Lance’s hand, brows furrowed, looking determined.
“Keith, oh my god,” Lance laughs a little, seemingly relaxed by this turn of event, “it looks like you’re going to war, breathe, babe.”
Keith doesn’t have time to register the pet name that Lance has let go of his hand, cupped Keith’s face in his hands, and next thing he knows, Keith is getting kissed. He closes his eyes, melting into Lance’s touch… and suddenly he’s yanked on the side and tumbles on the ground.
He feels something burn on his wrist, and barely has time to figure out what the fuck just happened when he sees Kosmo getting away, his leash loose behind him.
“Fuck!”
He takes off in one second, and runs after Kosmo while Lance is on the floor, laughing his ass off. He catches up with his dog after a few hundred meters–how the fuck will he be able to keep up with Kosmo when he’s grown up, he has no idea–and brings him back to where Lance and him were… Hm. Anyway.
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry about that,” he says, out of breath, when he reaches Lance again.
“Damn, maybe one day I’ll get you out of breath like that.”
Keith is suddenly thankful he’s already red from all this running, because what the fuck? Lance gasps, seeming to realise what he just said:
“Oh God. Sorry, I didn’t mean to say it out loud. Fuck, that’s worse.”
“It’s fine,” Keith says. He doesn’t know where the boldness comes from when he continues, eyes dead set into Lance’s: “I’d like that.”
Lance watches him for a second, something unreadable in his eyes, and then starts laughing. Keith is quickly joining him. What the fuck were those last five minutes anyway?
When they have both calmed down, Lance takes Keith’s hand–the one not holding Kosmo’s leash–and says:
“Well, now that we’ve both acknowledge that, there’s only one question left.”
“Which is?” Keith smiles, rolling his eyes at how ridiculous Lance is being right now.
“Keith, will you be my boyfriend?”
“Yes, please.”
Lance smiles, big and toothy: “Cool! Cool, cool, cool. Nice, very nice. Great–”
“Would you want to be mine?” Keith asks to shut him up, because he fears Lance is spiraling.
“I would love that, thank you.”
“What is up with you and thanking me?” Keith laughs.
“Oh my God. Stop that. I’m never talking again,” Lance says, burring his face in Keith’s chest.
Keith closes his arms around Lance, hugging him and smiling to himself.
“It’s okay, you have time to practise getting better,” he says in a soft voice.
“I do,” he hears Lance says against his shirt.
“Let’s go home,” Keith says.
Lance untangles himself from his boyfriend and doesn’t let go of his hand all the way to the house.