Chapter Text
Ryan had been distracted all day. His phone kept buzzing, and he'd look at it with a dopey smile before typing out a response. There'd be a few moments of silence, then the cycle would repeat again.
"Kinkade, is there something you wanna share with the group?" Shiro asked. He'd ignored the texts for as long as he could, but between the intermittent buzzing, Lance and Matt's ongoing rubber band shooting battle, and his lack of sleep the night before, it was becoming increasingly difficult to focus.
Ryan grinned. “Yeah, my boyfriend is meeting me for lunch.”
“Ah yes, the brunette we’ve heard so much about. When are you going to introduce us?” Lance asked, glancing up from his tablet.
“Why do you insist on meeting him? You don’t meet any of Matt’s dates.” Ryan said, gesturing to the sandy haired scientist squinting at multiple monitors.
“Matt doesn’t date anyone for longer than a few weeks-” “Hey!” “-You’ve been dating James for months. We’ve worked together for two years, you’ve met my fiancé, Shiro’s husband, and Hunk’s girlfriend. Seems only fair that we meet your boyfriend.” Lance reasons.
“Yeah, how is it he’s never around for any of our work functions? There’s been like, a million team dinners and ceremonies.” Matt asked, rolling his chair away from his desk to squint at Ryan over his own screens. The man shrugged. “He’s a college professor and writer. Semester ended and he went on a signing tour.” Ryan’s phone buzzed on the desk, and he stood. “If you really want to meet him, you can say hi before we leave. He’s almost here.”
“Field trip!” Matt cheered, jumping up from his seat.
“Does this mean you guys are going on lunch?” Shiro asked, looking up from his desk. “And I’ll finally have some peace and quiet?”
“Yes dad.” Lance said with an eye roll, setting down his tablet. The trio left the office, depositing their devices and heading towards the front of the building. Luckily, they weren’t doing any test flights today, so they were wearing casual clothes instead of flight suits. When they got to the lobby, Hunk and Pidge were walking in, coffees in hand, arguing animatedly. “No, being lactose intolerant does not mean you should go out of your way to eat dairy to “prove a point”, it means you should avoid dairy.”
“No, it means I should eat it to prove that I have no weaknesses. I will not be restrained by the so-called limits of my digestive system.” Pidge argued.
“Are you guys really having this argument again?” Lance complained. “It’s not an argument! If I eat enough dairy my body will adapt and begin to process it properly.” Pidge reasoned as the trio went over to them and Hunk. “Why are you guys here? Did Matt fart in the lab again?”
“Hey! That was one time!” Their brother whined. Lance rolled his eyes. “No, we’re here to meet Ryan’s mystery boyfriend.” Pidge and Hunk’s eyebrows both shot up. “Really?”
Keith came down the stairs, kissing Lance on the cheek and grabbing a coffee from Pidge’s hands. “What are yal doing?”
They all turned as they heard the door open and a brunette walked in. He looked around briefly before spotting them, grin appearing on his face. But Keith turned, and the man froze, grin disappearing just as quickly.
Keith choked and almost dropped his coffee. “James?”
The other man blinked a few times before inhaling slowly. “Keith, hi.”
The others looked back and forth between the two as an uneasy silence fell over the group.
“So…” Hunk started, breaking the silence. “Do yal know each other?”
“Yeah. We used to date.” Keith said dryly, eyes never straying from James’s.