Work Text:
Lance was head over heels for the cute guy he worked with, Keith. He was also insanely desperate, and ready to do anything to get this guy to go out with him. He found out the two of them had a shift at the same time, both serving tables, and started plotting with Pidge and Hunk—or rather, at Pidge and Hunk.
"Lance, buddy, this is getting creepy," Hunk said, watching Lance pace around the room.
Pidge nodded. "Yeah, how did you even get his shift times?"
"It's public information!" Lance said more defensively than he meant to.
Lance suddenly slapped his hands together, yelling about some plot. "I know how to get him to go out with me!"
"Be normal?" Pidge suggested.
"Be yourself?" Hunk corrected.
"No, why would I do that? A bet!"
Lance checked the time before grabbing his bag off the table and running out the door, close to being late to work for the hundredth time this month.
He ran into the doors of the crummy dinner to find Keith, already in his uniform and talking to Shiro, one of the cooks in the back. Lance quickly put on his uniform and walked up to Keith.
"Hey," Lance smirked. Keith just rolled his eyes, but he seemed vaguely amused by Lance's behavior. "Looking good as ever, today-"
"What do you want?" Keith joked, looking at Lance.
"First of all, how dare you assume I only state how good you look when I want something. Second of all, I want something."
"Yes, I'm aware, what is it?"
Lance smiled. Keith seemed to be in a decent mood today. Well, he hadn't cussed out a customer or argued with Lance yet, so it was shaping up to look like Keith was doing just great.
"Wanna make a bet?" Lance proposed.
Keith thought for a second. "I could be persuaded. What are your conditions." He leaned on the counter, examining Lance with those piercing eyes.
Lance took a deep breath, remembering the rules he'd made up in the car as he sped down the street. "At the end of our shifts, we compare who got the most tips. You can pick what you want if you get more, but if I get more, you have to go on a date with me," Lance grinned, winking.
"Not." Keith laughed. "Nothing in the world is worse than going on a date with you."
"Oh come on, you want all this."
"Incorrect, I do not want any of that."
Lance heard Shiro laugh in the kitchen, having overheard them.
"Come on," Lance said desperately, "there has to be something."
Keith thought for a second, chewing his lip in contemplation. "I guess you could take closing duty for me for a month," he smiled.
"What?!" Lance screwed up his face. "Going on one date with me is not worse than a month of closing duty!"
Keith rolled his eyes before picking up a plate and going to drop it off at a booth. Lance decided he would just get to work, and started taking orders from his tables.
Lance put up all the stops. There was no way in hell that he would be losing this bet. He complimented customers, was as nice as possible, and did everything in his power to make them just adore him.
At the end of the day his throat was tired from putting up his customer-service voice so much. He finished his shift by leaning exhausted on the counter before realizing he was done for the day. Keith himself walked over, looking equally tired.
"So, how many did you get?" Keith said absently, pulling a wad of cash from the pocket of his serving apron.
Lance did the same "Fifty." he said, counting up dollars.
Keith grimaced.
Lance broke out into laughter immediately. "What's that face for?" He said between laughs.
"You know damn well."
"Enlighten me."
"Forty-nine."
Lance almost started crying from a mix of joy and laughter.
He stood up and collected himself, barely. "Well, are you excited for our date at least?" Keith opted for a silent response and stared daggers through Lance instead. "I'll pick you up at seven, here's my number." He grabbed a pen from his pocket and scribbled it down. "Text me your address."
Keith rolled his eyes. "Bold of you to assume I'm going to go through with this."
"Don't be a sore loser," Lance laughed. "Besides, it'll be the best night of your life."
"Sure, sure."
Shiro walked out of the kitchen, slinging his apron over his shoulder. "Come on, Keith, where's the honor in chickening out?"
"You have got to stop listening to our conversations," Keith sighed before following him out the door, giving a small "Fine," to Lance as he went.
Shiro gave him a look before making sure Keith was out of earshot. "If you don't have him home before eleven you're fired."
"You can't even fire me, you're cook?" Lance said, screwing up his face.
"Fired!"
The next day, at eight o'clock exactly, Keith found himself being dragged by the red sweater sleeve to Lance's dingy blue truck and driven to the worst-rated restaurant in town.
Lance turned down the shitty pop music blaring on his radio to talk to Keith. "Should we fake a proposal? That would turn heads."
"Knowing you it wouldn't be fake."
"You want me so bad it makes you look stupid."
"Why are you like this."
Lance wore a tee shirt with a suit printed on it, cargo pants, and the most neon pair of Crocs Keith had ever seen. Keith, who missed the memo on the dress code, wore a nice red sweater, black pants, and Doc Martins.
"Why are you dressed like Adam Sandler on a coke bender?" Keith asked, finally examining his outfit choice.
"For the sole purpose of embarrassing you as much as possible, my lover of the night. Also, I'm hurt, Keith. I think I look lovely."
"I see."
They arrived at the restaurant, and Keith watched with the faintest resemblance of a smile as Lance ran around to his side of the car to open the door for him. Keith hopped down from the truck and followed Lance inside.
They were led to a practically empty dining area, and Keith yet again watched Lance pull out his chair for him.
It was kind of sweet. Keith almost slapped himself for thinking that. It was not sweet in any regard, it was Lance. The same man was currently wearing Crocs that would outshine the sun.
Their orders were taken by a server who looked like he'd rather drink poison than be working there. Lance and Keith both understood the look, having had the same glint in their eyes about twenty-four hours ago.
"See, this isn't bad at all?" Lance laughed, taking a sip of the Coca-Cola he ordered to spite Keith's coke bender joke in the car.
"I hope you choke."
"How loving."
Their food was delivered, and they both looked down at the driest, grossest, most upsetting pasta they'd ever seen in their lives. Lance practically gagged as their plates were sat down, but saved it for when the waiter left.
"God, did they fish this out of the dumpster?" Keith asked, toying with one of his noodles with a fork.
"Looks like it. I hope people dont look at the dinner's food like this," Lance laughed.
They both took regretful bites to find it didn't taste half as bad as it looked but was still pretty awful. Keith decided to just eat the bread they were left with while he watched Lance try to choke down his disgusting pasta.
"What do you do outside of work and being a bitch?" Lance asked, realizing he couldn't take any more of this pasta.
"I'm a student at the local college, Garrison."
"Oh, hey, I go there too! How come I've never seen you on campus?"
"I do their online classes. The only reason I work at the dinner is because Shiro was worried I was spending too much time inside."
Lance nodded as he talked. Even if this date was made out of a bet, Lance felt like he was learning about Keith.
"How about hobbies, like, what do you do for fun?" Lance asked.
"Not much."
"Come on, you can't just go to school and work all day."
Keith shrugged. "My hobbies are pretty boring."
"Tell me anyways."
"I read a lot. And I play video games. That's about it."
Keith toyed with his food some more. This date wasn't so bad. He expected to be miserable, but just as Shiro had said, Lance was surprisingly nice.
Keith pushed the thought away stubbornly, the same way he pushed the food on his plate.
Soon, the bill came. Keith procured his wallet, certain they were going to either split it or pay for what they had gotten separately, but Lance surprised him by swatting his hand away and giving his card to the waiter.
"You didn't have to pay," Keith said, face red for a reason he had yet to understand.
Lance waved his hand. "I got more tips tonight, anyways," he laughed.
Keith hated that cocky laugh. Although, right now, in the darkened light of the worst restaurant in town, it didn't seem so bad.
"So, where to now?" Lance asked. Keith shrugged, having assumed their date was over. Of course, he did not doubt that Lance would milk this for as long as possible.
"Oh, I know somewhere. Your emo ass will love it," Lance laughed, collecting his card from the waiter who had just returned, shockingly fast until you realized they were the only two brave enough to eat there.
Keith caught himself smiling while Lance held open the door for him and opened his car door, but made himself keep his blank face for a while longer.
Lance drove quietly. Keith had never seen him quiet. He was always bubbling at the mouth, itching to talk about something or another. It felt strangely intimate, like they were closer than ever despite the foot of space between them in the truck.
The silence was oddly nice. Keith turned his head to face the window so he could smile without Lance seeing.
The beat-down truck stopped in a part of town Keith was always told to avoid, not because it was dangerous but because there was nothing out there.
Lance opened Keith's door and led him to the back of a brick building.
"Are you about to murder me? Is this how you lure people?" Keith said, only really half joking.
Lance gave a lopsided smile. "Maybe, guess you'll have to find out."
He brought Keith around to a rickety ladder that he was fairly sure would kill him before Lance did, and started to climb it. Keith placed a hand on the rusty metal and convinced himself he'd rather not look like a coward in front of Lance, who was already half up the ladder.
Keith hoisted himself up and joined Lance on the roof. Lance made exaggerated jazz hands and said, "Ta-da!"
Keith looked out at one of the most beautiful sights he'd ever laid eyes on. The roof overlooked all of the city, making Keith's eyes light up.
Lance quite enjoyed the view, not the view of the city, though.
"Woah," Keith said, lackluster for a real response.
"I know, I told you you'd like it."
"I wasn't expecting this."
Lance smiled. "I come up here a lot. It's nice. You can see the stars out here."
Keith looked up, and sure enough a thousand stars looked back at him. He smiled, trying to ignore Lance's eyes glued to him.
"When I was a kid," Lance started, leading Keith over to a clean slab of concrete, "I wanted to be an astronaut so badly."
"Not anymore?" Keith asked, still staring at the stars, picking out constellations he knew silently.
Lance smiled at the response. "No, not really. I am in an astronomy course at Garrison, though. So, maybe one day."
Keith smiled. He admired the stars. In some way, they reminded him of Lance. They shone so brightly that even a hardass like him had to stop and admire them.
"What did you wanna be as a kid?" Lance asked, voice softening.
Keith thought for a second. "I never really thought about it as a kid, I guess."
"Really? Never?"
Keith shook his head. "I never was very aspirational."
Lance nodded. "When I was a kid, my parents bought me a book about Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez. He was the first Cuban to fly into space. Ever since then, I was obsessed with it."
Keith smiled softly, turning his eyes from the sky to Lance. "That's sweet," Keith smiled. He was surprised at himself, he never really talked like that unless it was to his dog.
"Why'd you move here?" Lance asked, cheeks a little pinker than they were before.
"I got kicked out of my old high school on a disciplinary issue. I kinda moped around for a bit before I heard about the college here and decided to actually finish high school and move here. I think I was looking for a fresh start."
Lance nodded understandingly. "Disciplinary problem, very you," he laughed.
Keith hit his arm playfully, laughing too. "It was the other guy's fault. Dumb people get punched."
Lance laughed. Keith tried not to think about how the sweet sound made him feel.
Lance checked his phone for the time. "Looks like I've gotta get you home. Shiro threatened me at knifepoint to have you home before eleven, and I truly do not want on his bad side."
Keith rolled his eyes. "He's so protective. I'm a grown man, I'll stay out however late I want."
"Correction, you'll stay out until your brother almost murders me, which is what's going to happen if I get you home at eleven o' one."
Keith laughed, following Lance down the rickety ladder, less afraid now. Keith let himself smile as Lance pulled open the door for him. Lance seemed pleased with himself as he tugged his seatbelt on and started the rumbling engine.
They drove in a comfortable silence. Keith hated the quiet at the beginning of this date, but he enjoyed it now. He hardly noticed when Lance snaked a hand onto his, warming his cold hand.
Keith felt a blush creep across his cheeks, but it only got darker as they got closer to his home.
Lance parked his little truck and looked over to tell Keith goodbye.
Before he could say anything, Keith pressed a kiss to his cheek and mumbled. "I had fun tonight, thanks for the bet, Lance."
Lance watched Keith return to the house with an equally red face.
"How'd your date go?" Shiro asked jokingly, not bothering to look up.
"Oh, just awful." Keith grinned, tugging off his jacket.
Despite his sarcasm, Shiro noted it was the first time he'd seen Keith smile like that in a long time. Maybe Lance had poised the perfect plan.