Work Text:
End of year exams were quickly approaching and just around the corner. That meant that many students had found themselves consistently bound to the campus library, in hopes that it would provide an environment where distractions could not prevail so easily.
Amongst the many groups of students that were located there, was a group of five friends. At the table in which they sat, it was littered in many different pieces of paper, textbooks, and other materials such as pens, sticky notes, highlighters and of course the essential being laptops. There were four different subjects that were being studied at the time. They each had their own respective courses, but decided that despite that, it would still be useful to study at the same time, in order to ease the painstaking process of trying to cram in the same information over and over again in order to solidify it into a concrete piece of their brain.
Well, it was supposed to be easier. That never ended up being the case however. This was due to the fact that while four of them were completely focused on trying to crack down on the work that was set before them, the final person had an extremely low attention span. So it served as a rather large distraction.
The people who sat at this table went as follows. There was Allura, who took biomedical science. Then there was Hunk, who did mechanical engineering. Next was Pidge, who studied cybernetics. And finally, there was Keith and Lance, who studied astrophysics together.
The person who just so happened to be doing their own thing rather than studying was Lance, which meant that it was a bit of a pain for Keith who was trying to study with him. If it were anyone else, while it could have been a little distracting, at least they didn't have to worry about making sure things are correct with another person. That was not the case for Keith however.
“Lance, please,” He grumbled, rubbing his temple with one hand as he said those words, and used his other free hand to move about some papers to look over some notes taken from class and compare it to what was being researched in that moment.
“Nawh, but Keith, I thought you loved the sound of my voice,” Lance said with a cheesy grin, before dramatically draping himself on Keith’s shoulder and invading all of his personal space.
“I’d love to hear it, if it were talking about this,” Keith said, gesturing largely to all of the material that sat in front of them, vaguely pushing Lance off of him as he did so.
Lance decided that the best way to cure his current boredom was to “sulk”, which basically consisted of him sitting in his chair, with a large and exaggerated pout, and his arms folded while he hunched over slightly. He knew no one took it seriously, which he was honestly rather glad for, so he knew that it meant it wouldn't be too long before someone would tell him to stop as it was off putting.
“Lance, usually I wouldn't mind your antics but right now really isn't the time, please try to tone it down a little,” Allura eventually said, growing tired of the dramatics that she was watching out of the corner of her eye. Usually she found Lance, well, not exactly charming, but she could find some things he did humorous. But at that moment she couldn't help but grow annoyed, even if she felt slightly guilty for that fact.
“Okay, okay fine, I'll try to stay calm… ish,” Lance said, having a somewhat guilty sentiment himself. He sighed and decided to scooch over to Keith a bit, if that was even possible, to try and assist in the studying the best way he could, which honestly wasn't all that much but at least he was trying. He ended up resting his head on Keith’s shoulder, occasionally giving some hums of agreement or some small answers to what Keith was saying, not really paying all that much attention.
The persistent boredom did completely take over eventually though, which landed Lance going back to just rambling about whatever came to mind. And that consisted of a lot. Any new thought and the words were just spilling out of his mouth, and there was clearly no stopping him. He had reached peak boredom.
“Do you reckon they have any comics in here or anything?” Lance asked, completely changing the topic from what he was just talking about, again.
“I don't think a college library would have comic books in them,” Pidge said, looking over the rim of their glasses to stare at Lance as if that were an obvious answer.
“Hey, you never know, art students may need them or something,” Lance responded with a shrug, crossing his arms as if he were the one giving the obvious answer.
Pidge continued to stare at him for a moment with a deadpan look, before they rolled their eyes and went back to furiously typing away at their laptop.
“Did you all know I like comics? I think they're cool,” Lance then said. His eyes lit up a little bit as he began to mention them, clearly showing advanced interest in what he was discussing.
Keith knew pressing further was probably a stupid idea. He himself could feel the growing boredom in the studying that sat in front of them. So honestly, allowing himself to do anything but meant he knew that would also mean he was done studying for the day, as he was going to likely be distracted. But things are worth it sometimes.
“Oh really? I didn't know that,” Keith said, turning his gaze from the bright computer screen to Lance, who's eyes looked like they could pop out of his head at any moment. He clearly got rather excited so had to take a moment to compose himself.
“Yeah, I really do! I've always loved them actually,” Lance said, as he began to tap a finger on his chin to suggest he was thinking very hard about what he could say.
Keith raised an eyebrow, rather surprised at this discovery. He thought he knew most things about Lance, so was surprised to learn such information.
“Do you not remember how much of a fanatic he was in our first year of high school?” Hunk asked, allowing himself into the conversation.
“Oh yes I forgot about that, he tried to reference something as a way to flirt with me once,” Allura said, then also joining in the conversation, laughing slightly as she said it.
“Huh?! What, no! Pfft! I’d never do such a thing,” Lance said defensively, crossing his arms as he did so, clearly embarrassed.
Keith couldn't help but smirk slightly at this revelation, something that Lance then quickly caught onto, causing his face to flush heavily.
“You referenced a comic to flirt?” Keith said, the playful smirk staying on his face, surprised that it was an attempt that would happen, but then again, this was Lance. And he'd try anything to pull someone he was into, something he knew all too well from their first year of college. But it's not like he could complain, they were together after all, so it clearly worked.
“Oh yeah, you wouldn't have seen it would you?” Pidge said nonchalantly, not looking up from what they were rapidly typing away at.
“Our first year of high school? Pretty sure that was when our whole ‘rivalry’ happened, so no,” Keith said, laughing slightly at recalling the memories.
Lance just rolled his eyes.
“It is not my fault you were just better at everything,” He said, turning away from the rest of the table.
“Hey, your words, not mine,” Keith said playfully, wrapping an arm around Lance’s shoulders, which he quickly melted into.
“But I'm curious about this whole comic thing, seems I missed out on something,” Keith then said, hoping he could lead Lance into some kind of rant about a subject he was clearly passionate about.
Yep. Keith had definitely long given up on continuing studying. They had been going for about an hour and a half though, and it's not like the current thing they were going over was all that interesting. Lance subjecting himself to ignoring the boredom just meant that Keith was much more vulnerable to shifting his focus elsewhere as well.
Lance’s eyes immediately lit up at the fact Keith was inviting him to just ramble about whatever he wished to. Almost instantly, whatever thought came to him was spilling out at a rapid pace. Lance went on and on, while Keith just listened intently.
“Oh, but one of my favourite comics had like, such a cool world building thing, but only had two issues so never got to see it expanded,” Lance said with a frown, his eyebrows furrowing together as if to think about what he was saying. Keith cocked his head slightly, as if to show his curiosity and to invite Lance to talk about it further.
“You say it's your favourite but you didn't even look into that much,” Hunk said, reinserting himself into the conversation.
There seemed to be some kind of staring match between both Lance and Hunk, which honestly confused Keith slightly. He turned to Allura and Pidge, who didn't seem too bothered by the conversation that sat in front of them, unsurprisingly. Exams are likely more important than comics, but that was a factor that was being ignored at that moment.
Once Pidge caught onto Keith looking towards them, in search of some kind of assistance, they paused typing for a moment.
“Lance had a hyperfixation on a comic, Hunk is a good friend so researched said comic, he learned more than Lance did, this happens,” Pidge said, gesturing to the… whatever it was that was going on between the pair.
Keith just nodded slowly in response, still not too sure what caused such a reaction exactly, but glad there was at least a little more context than previously.
“Keith, maybe you should ask Lance the name of the comics, you might get a good laugh out of it,” Allura said with a slight giggle, almost like she knew she was stirring something up. She was rather nice, but sometimes when she knew she could cause harmless mischief, she would often take up the opportunity. This was a personality trait Keith would never admit kind of terrified him.
He was hesitant to ask given all of the vague information that surrounded something as simple as a comic book. He eventually decided to anyway, once curiosity did end up getting the better of him.
As he leant away from Pidge and Allura, and back towards Lance and Hunk, he caught the end of the conversation.
“I'm telling you, whatever you found was just something completely unrelated, has nothing to do with it,” Lance said with an exaggerated shrug. Hunk continued to give Lance a deadpan look, as if he were debating if this were really something he could be bothered to continue arguing about.
“So… what's the name of the comics then?” Keith asked, trying to hide the waver in his voice. He thought it was stupid. Why was he nervous over asking for a comic book name? But thinking about how well he knew his friends, and his boyfriend, he also knew that there was definitely more to this than meets the eye.
“Oh, it's like a really long name, it's called ‘The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys’,” Lance said with a satisfied smile.
Keith choked hard on absolutely nothing. It caused a concerned glance from everyone.
Well, concern came from Lance mostly. The other three gave more of a glance that said “we know why you reacted that way, but does your reaction have to be that extreme?”
“It's called what now?” Keith asked, once he regained some breath back after violently coughing on pure shock. He hoped that he heard right, because if he did, he knew he was going to have an absolute field day.
“Well, I just call it the Killjoys comics, that's easier, they may be fabulous but I'm not saying that every time,” Lance said, not exactly answering Keith's question. But luckily that was enough for Keith anyway.
It seemed as if Keith had more to say, but then retracted back from adding anything. A small smile spread across his face.
“If you have the comics, go get them and then come meet me in my dorm, we can talk about it more there,” Keith said, standing so he could grab all of his studying material and shove it back into the bag that he had. Lance stood almost immediately after, and followed in pursuit.
“Of course I have them, I'll happily meet you in your dorm as soon as,” Lance said, giving Keith a wink, to which he replied with a simple eye roll.
The pair said goodbye to the three that remained, who were definitely secretly glad that they were going. They were all serious about their studies, of course, but Allura, Pidge and Hunk more so.
“You should let us know tomorrow how this comic meeting goes,” Hunk suggested. Lance happily agreed, just being glad it meant he could talk more about one of his favourite things. Keith agreed because he knew what he was about to get into. He was more than excited.
✧⋆✦⋆✧
The second that Keith heard a knock on his dorm room door, he immediately leapt up from his bed to answer it. Lance stood in the door frame, harbouring a large grin, and holding the two comic books in one of his hands. Keith moved out of the way so Lance could enter the room, where he carefully placed the comics on the small desk that sat in there, and then jumped onto the bed, making himself as comfy as he could.
“I love your dorm y'know,” Lance said with a small smirk, giving Keith a look that suggested that he was trying to invite Keith to join him on the bed.
“I know you do, that's not the first time you've said it,” Keith said with a slight roll of his eyes. He remained standing up near the door, his arms folded as if he were waiting for something.
“Well, not all of us were blessed with having a brother who worked here that meant we could get a single room,” Lance said, shrugging slightly, as if that were the most obvious thing in the world.
“That had nothing to do with Shiro and everything to do with me just being lucky,” Keith said, struggling to fight back a small smile that tugged at the corners of his mouth. He knew that while it was true that there was some luck, he also knew that Shiro probably did have some kind of role to allow the fact he got a single dorm room, instead of having to share.
Lance just responded with an eye roll. This was not the first time they had this conversation, and it definitely wasn't going to be the last. It wasn't exactly a negative conversation though. I mean, who would complain about the fact you didn't have to worry about roommates walking in and interrupting something at any given moment?
“Soo, why did you want me to bring the comics anyway?” Lance eventually asked, looking towards Keith, who upon hearing that had a shit eating grin on his face. That kind of scared Lance if he was completely honest with himself. But his expression remained curious nonetheless.
Keith paused before he decided to give an answer, and made his way from the dorm room door to the desk. There, he then began to sift through the large amount of items that rested there.
“You said you wanted more than just those two comics right, like story wise?” Keith asked, as he continued to rummage through his stuff. Lance furrowed his eyebrows and titled his head slightly in confusion.
“Yeah, I did… why?” He asked, completely unsure where the conversation could be heading. The entire time he knew Keith, he had never known him to be into comics, or anything that's too similar. So the fact that he was suddenly really into all of this was, well, baffling to say the least.
Keith let out a small chuckle, before quickly stifling it. He knew Lance was already suspicious of what was happening, he didn't want to make things worse.
That was a lie, he totally did. He just didn't want things to happen too early on.
“The author of those comics also writes music, so he wrote an album and then he comics followed on after that, not all of the songs relate exactly but some do,” Keith said, not giving Lance the exact explanation that he wanted, but he didn't want to give everything away too quickly.
Keith finally found what he was looking for, that being a CD, and quickly took it out of its case. He then slipped the disc into a small stereo he had sitting on his desk, and pressed play. Then he jumped onto the bed next to Lance, who just looked more confused than ever.
“This is… a weird intro,” Lance said, unsure what to make of the music that started playing. Or less music and more man talking.
“It's the guy who talks on the radio in the comics,” Keith said with a soft smile. He grabbed one of the comics off of the desk, and opened it up to the first page, in which the first line said “Look Alive, Sunshine”. Lance looked at what Keith had pointed out, to see he was right. He was really tempted to ask how and why he knew so much. But he also knew that Keith was not going to give a straight answer any time soon. So he just kept that thought to himself for now.
As the fifty-four minutes of the album passed by, they went from casually sitting next to one another, to being a somewhat tangled mess. That was a lot more comfortable for them, however. One laying atop the other. In this case, it was Lance who was resting his head on Keith's chest, while Keith ran a hand through Lance’s hair as he explained whether or not each song had relevance to the comics, and then what kind of lore surrounded it if so.
Lance couldn't deny that he actually enjoyed most of the music that played. Although there were definitely some tracks that did confuse him. Such as the one “Goodnite, Dr. Death”, as he found the American national anthem followed by extra loud radio static was not exactly an ideal song. And it didn't help much more when Keith struggled to explain its relevance.
They had eventually reached the end of the album, and Lance naturally wanted to ask a few questions.
“Okay, so only some songs relate right, why don't all of them?” He decided as his starter question. It was a valid start though, if there was an album based on a comic, why would all songs not end up relating?
“The album came first, so think of it as a concept before the full story,” Keith said with a shrug. There was a small glint in his eye that Lance recognised as one he would often get if he had the opportunity to infodump. So he naturally indulged, loving hearing his boyfriend being able to talk passionately about something. It was even better when it was something he was interested in. Not that Lance didn't enjoy said types of conversations if he didn't know much about the topic, it was just a highlight.
“Did you wanna explain what relates and how in more detail?” Lance suggested with a soft smile. He was honestly kind of excited over the potential of them being able to bond over a shared interest.
“Most tracks relate to the story in some way or another, but the ones that are a direct link between the comics, rather than the world's backstory, are Party Poison and Destroya, them both being characters in the comics,” Keith started, his eyebrows furrowing in concentration. He paused for a moment while he collected his thoughts to say what came next.
“Then there's Na Na Na Na and Sing, both of which have their own music videos,” Keith said with a satisfied smile.
“What! Music videos? Keith, can we watch them, pleeeassse?” Lance practically begged. It caused Keith to laugh quite loudly, but nod rather quickly.
They both then sat up, and Keith reached for his phone so he could pull up YouTube.
“So who's your favourite character?” Lance asked, as Keith typed away, wanting more conversation about the comic based subject. He enjoyed the backstory through music, but he didn't know everything just yet. Keith pondered for a moment, before then answering.
“I gotta say Party Poison,” Keith said with a small shrug, a very small smile resting on his face. It was something that was quickly recognised as embarrassment. Lance could only raise an eyebrow.
“I mean, I don't blame you, but why?” Lance asked, curious for Keith's reasoning. Each character had their own interesting personality and addition to the story, so he was curious about the draw in.
“Would it be wrong if I told my boyfriend a big factor is because I think he's hot?” Keith said with a light laugh. Lance decided it was the perfect time for dramatics. He clenched a hand on his chest and dramatically fell back onto the bed.
“Keith, how could you do this to me?” Lance said with unnecessarily exaggerated sarcasm. Keith just nudged him slightly.
“Do you wanna watch these or not?” He asked, raising an eyebrow and waving his phone. Lance grabbed Keith’s shirt and pulled him back so they were both lying down. Keith got the message and raised his phone above them so they could watch it that way.
Lance found himself extremely invested in the videos. He knew that he would be, but what he saw he didn't expect. So that was probably a contributing factor to the extra investment.
“They were, not what I was expecting, but I really enjoyed them,” Lance said, turning on his side so he could face Keith, who put his phone down next to him and turned over himself.
“Also, I get the whole thing with Party Poison, but hear me out on Kobra Kid,” Lance then said, a small laugh escaping him.
“Just means we got good taste, they're actually brothers y’know,” Keith said nonchalantly. That was a statement that caused Lance’s jaw to drop. To Keith this was of course common knowledge, to Lance it was mind blowing information.
“They're what?!” He exclaimed, to which Keith only nodded in confirmation. Lance could only rapidly blink in shock and his mouth remained hanging open.
A few minutes of them making small discussions about what they listened to and watched. They were practically playing verbal ping pong the way they kept bouncing off of each other's statements. And they absolutely thrived in it.
“Did they make any more music? I enjoyed most of it so… is more a possibility?” Lance asked, averting his gaze slightly. He often made fun of Keith’s music taste, so he found it kind of embarrassing to admit he enjoyed some of it.
Keith had to bite back the laugh that had been bubbling up ever since they were in the library. He gave a small nod and reached for his phone again. There he opened Spotify and put the artist into shuffle mode.
They sat talking for a few a while longer. But not after long, Lance’s eyebrows furrowed slightly, as if he were thinking hard about something. His eyes then widened slightly.
“Keith… babe… my man… who are we listening to?” Lance asked nervously. He thought he vaguely recognised a few songs, but he wasn't too sure why. The only suspicion he could find he refused to be true, so he needed confirmation.
Keith however just stayed silent, with him clearly fighting against a laugh.
Seeing he wasn't getting an answer, he sat back up and grabbed Keith’s phone to see who was playing, with Keith sitting up after him, but making no attempt to stop anything. The words on the screen stared at Lance, and he slowly turned his head towards Keith. The reaction was enough to cause him to break, causing Lance to be in shock, and Keith in hysterics.
“Keith, I better not be enjoying My Chemical Romance right now,” Lance said, raising a hand to his mouth, as if to hide his shock. Keith just nodded.
“Lance my love, you're emo,” Keith eventually said through small fits of laughter. Lance then playfully tackled Keith backwards, which just caused the pair of them to laugh.
“I'm not emo, I should have known it was suspicious that you liked the comic when your special interest is literally emo music,” Lance said, burying his head in the crook of Keith’s neck in shame.
“It's even worse when I actually enjoyed the music, you're telling me this whole time you've actually had a decent music taste?” Lance then continued, pouting slightly.
“It's okay, I won't tell anyone,” Keith said, planting a small kiss on the top of Lance’s head. He could only respond with a small laugh.
“So you'll keep me apparently being emo a secret?” Lance eventually asked. Keith nodded, going back to running a hand through Lance's hair.
✧⋆✦⋆✧
The next day eventually came around. Keith and Lance spent the night listening to more of Keith’s music, which included My Chemical Romance and other similar bands, and Lance could now no longer deny it was good. And Lance was definitely not ready to admit he was wrong about his own hyperfixation.
The group of five met in the library, as they usually would, where Hunk, Pidge and Allura all gave Lance a look for him to expand on the comic situation.
“So, the comics?” Hunk asked with a raised eyebrow, wanting to hear what his best friend had to say. Lance chuckled nervously. He didn't mind being wrong or anything, it was the fact it was something he claimed to be so passionate about that made him feel slight shame.
“Yeah, there was like, music and stuff that went with it I guess,” Lance said, turning his gaze away. That then earned a shared look and similar smile between the three, who knew this whole time. They were just glad the day finally came that Lance knew.
“And?” Pidge then asked, just wanting to hear if Lance knew about the band that was behind the creation.
“He wasn't a fan, he liked the idea but it wasn't for him,” Keith said, slipping his hand into Lance’s, and giving it a small reassuring squeeze. Lance looked at Keith and gave him a soft smile. He didn't need Keith to go that far in defending his pride and his enjoyment of that music scene, but he was glad he did.
“Really? I'm surprised he could even admit the idea was good,” Allura said with a light laugh. She enjoyed teasing Lance, who would often pretend he hated it, but honestly enjoyed that they sometimes had some playful banter between them.
“I like the concept, it was very cool, but I much prefer it when I can read it instead of listening to it,” Lance said defensively, dropping Keith's hand so he could cross his arms.
He knew deep down that his friends caught him and Keith on the bullshit immediately. You can't be friends for around six years, or nine in Lance and Hunk’s case, and not have them know when you're lying. But they indulged in the lie anyway, just so they could save Lance’s likely slightly bruised ego.
They found their usual spot in the library, and set up all of their books and papers and other things they needed, and got to work.
“Hey Lance, wanna listen to some music with me?” Keith asked, handing him an earbud. Lance happily took it, and it weirdly helped them focus a lot more. He was also pleasantly surprised when he realised that the music they were listening to did not just consist of the newly found emo genre, but also music Lance already really liked.
“When did you make this?” Lance asked with a raised eyebrow, realising that this must have been a playlist Keith made.
“Not too long after you fell asleep, I wanted a shared playlist we'd finally actually enjoy together, so I made it then so it could be a surprise,” Keith said with a shrug, as if making a playlist for someone isn't one of the most romantic things a person could do.
Lance couldn't help but flush slightly at this revelation. He gave Keith a quick kiss on the cheek, before then turning his attention to some of the studying material that sat in front of them.
Maybe Lance had accidentally become emo, but he didn't mind when that meant that he and Keith could be supposedly emo together.