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Lance pulled up to Keith's apartment, excited to spend time together with just the two of them. Keith wanted to hang out with him! He grabbed the grocery bags of candy and drinks that he bought for them to share while they watched the movie and jumped out of his truck, quickly walking up to Keith's apartment.
After knocking, he stood there for a couple of seconds, waiting for Keith to answer and trying not to look too excited. When Keith opened the door with his perfect grin, and perfect face, and perfect everything, Lance had to force himself to greet Keith like a normal man and not just stand there ogling him. Truly a tremendous effort considering how adorable Keith looked with his slightly messy hair and a sweater that was a size too big.
Lance followed Keith into the kitchen, Keith jumping to sit on the counter while Lance placed the grocery bags next to him.
"So, any idea on what movie we should watch?" Keith asked.
It took Lance a second to process the question, having been distracted by how cute Keith was, sitting there and swinging his feet.
"No, I don't really have a preference," Lance said, "I'm happy with whatever." This wasn't true, but he didn't want to be the one to pick something, just in case Keith didn't like it.
"Alright then, I was thinking a horror?" Keith said, tilting his head in question.
"That sounds great," Lance said with a grin. He absolutely hated horror, but he was still getting to watch a movie with Keith, so he figured he probably wouldn't really mind it.
"If you wanna head into the living room and turn the TV on, I'll make the popcorn," Keith said, hopping down from the counter.
Lance walked into the living room and quickly noticed that the seating options were a small couch in front of the TV and an armchair off to the side, meaning that they'd either have to squish in together or sit relatively far apart. Unsure of what Keith would prefer, he opted for the armchair, not wanting to risk making him uncomfortable. When Keith walked into the living room, he grabbed a blanket and flopped down on the couch, setting the bowl of popcorn on the coffee table. He glanced over at Lance in question. "You wanna come sit over here with me?" he asked. “You’ll be able to see better.”
"Do you want me to?" Lance asked in surprise.
"I mean, I'd like you to, but no pressure, either way is fine," Keith said with a small smile.
Lance hesitantly walked over to the couch, unsure of where Keith wanted him to sit, as he was essentially lying across the entire space. Noticing his hesitation, Keith shifted to a seated position, leaning against the back of the couch, with one leg crossed under him and the other hanging off the side.
“Come on, I won’t bite,” Keith said, patting the space next to him in invitation.
Lance felt his face going pink as he sat as far away as the couch would allow. Still, he practically pressed against Keith, able to feel the other man’s leg against his thigh. It only got worse when Keith tossed the blanket over them, grabbing the remote in one hand and putting the other dangerously close to Lance's leg.
Settling on a classic horror film, they lapsed into comfortable silence, content to watch a mediocre movie and spend time together. As the movie progressed, Lance was finally able to acknowledge that Keith wasn’t uncomfortable with their proximity and let himself relax a bit. Well, as relaxed as he can be during a horror film, which is admittedly not very much.
Keith's hand eventually found Lance's thigh under the blanket. It took Lance a moment to notice, as he was too busy trying to seem nonchalant about the horror movie, which was beginning to upset him far more than he thought it would.
As soon as he noticed Keith's hand, warm on his leg, he was grateful for the dim lighting, as it hid how red his face got.
Keith glanced over at him, raising his eyebrows in silent question. "Is this okay?" he whispered, noting how tense the other man was under his hand. Lance just nodded, hoping Keith couldn't tell how embarrassed he was by both Keith’s touch and his own ridiculous fear of the movie.
However, Keith noticed the lack of verbal confirmation and Lance’s continued rigid posture and at once removed his hand, oblivious to how disappointed Lance was at the loss of contact.
“Are you positive I’m not making you uncomfortable?” Keith asked, not sure if he was the cause of Lance’s discomfort or not, and unwilling to risk it.
Shocked at Keith’s belief that he had done something wrong, Lance hurried to assure him that that wasn’t the case. “No, no, you didn’t do anything wrong at all. I’m more worried about bothering you, actually,” he said, growing flustered. “I really enjoy being near you, I’m just- I think I’ll end up doing something wrong, or upsetting you,” he said sheepishly, averting his gaze.
Keith laughed at Lance’s admission, amused by how oblivious they both were. And then, seeing the hurt expression on Lance’s face, hurried to say, “I’m not laughing at you, I promise. I just find it funny that we were both worried about the same thing, and for no reason, apparently.”
“What? Why were you worried?”
“Because I thought that I was making you uncomfortable! I thought you didn’t want to be so close to me, especially when you tensed up after I touched you,” Keith explained.
“Oh, so it was ridiculous for either of us to be worried,” Lance said, giving a forced laugh and conveniently not mentioning that the movie was stressing him before Keith touched him.
“Yeah, so…. we good now?” Keith asked, raising an eyebrow.
Lance smiled, trying to tune out the sounds of the movie in the background that were still setting him on edge. “We’re good,” he said.
“Then this is okay?” Keith questioned, placing his hand back on Lance’s thigh. Physical contact made the movie more bearable, so he quickly nodded, leaning lightly against Keith while he rewound the movie to replay the part they had missed while talking.
Once watching the movie again, though, Keith quickly noticed that Lance didn’t seem to be enjoying it very much and would almost imperceptibly draw into himself every time it got loud or dramatic. He probably should have noticed sooner, but unfortunately, he had been too focused on watching the movie and wondering if it would be okay to get closer to Lance.
Every time something slightly scary happened, Keith's hand would lightly squeeze Lance's thigh, and Lance, now that he had permission to touch Keith, gradually began to hide his face against Keith's neck. What Keith didn't know is that Lance wasn't leaning into him purely out of a desire to be near - although that was part of it - he was hiding his face so that he couldn't see the blood on the screen and so that Keith couldn't see his facial expression.
Lance struggled to hide his flinch every time he heard a scream, a task that was only getting more and more difficult as the movie progressed and he lost his composure. Although he was enjoying getting to be close to Keith, he was more than ready for this movie to be over.
He removed his face from Keith's neck to timidly ask, "How much is left of the movie?" thanking God when his voice didn't break.
Keith, unaware of Lance's growing distress, checked the time and responded, "About 45 minutes."
"Thanks," Lance said quietly, then immediately squeezed Keith's arm when he caught a glimpse of blood on the screen. He inhaled a sharp breath and willed his eyes to stop blurring as he hid his face back against Keith's shoulder.
Mildly concerned and beginning to think that Lance didn't want to cuddle just for the sake of it, Keith looked over at him and asked, "You okay? We can turn the movie off if you want; we don't have to finish it."
"No, no, it's fine," Lance said, not wanting to ruin it for Keith.
"Alright, if you're sure," Keith said, turning back to the movie.
Surely if the movie bothered Lance that much, he’d say something, right? He agreed when Keith suggested it, so Keith figured it couldn’t be that unpleasant for him; maybe he just enjoyed being scared. Keith knew some people did. He still shifted to be a little bit closer to Lance, though, just because.
For Lance, it was becoming significantly harder to suppress his reactions to the movie, though, and he buried his face further against Keith, grabbing onto his own arm and digging his nails in to ground himself in the present.
He couldn't do it, but he didn't want to disappoint Keith. He hadn't even realized tears had begun to stream down his face until Keith felt them drip onto his shoulder and immediately paused the movie, looking at Lance in concern. Noticing Lance’s grip on his own arm, he gently took his hand and began to pry his fingers away from his skin, rubbing his thumb over the red crescents Lance’s nails left behind.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Keith asked, his thumb soft on Lance's skin. The brunette slowly looked up at him, moving his head from the crook of Keith’s neck. His eyes were rimmed with red.
“I’m sorry, I thought I would be ok, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, I know you hate me now, I-” Lance stammered. Keith took his other hand, clasping them both.
“Stop saying that, don’t, it’s ok,” Keith said. “Can you tell me what’s wrong? Please?” he asked, desperately wanting an answer so that he could figure out how to make Lance feel better.
Lance sniffed, not looking him in the eye. “I-I don’t really like horror movies. The blood…and the yelling…” he muttered.
Keith nodded, running his fingers over Lance's hands. “That’s ok,” he said softly, “You could have told me sooner, I wouldn’t have been upset.” He let go of one of his hands, hesitating for a second before cupping his cheek to wipe away the tears on Lance’s.
“I disappointed you, though,” Lance murmured, blushing slightly.
“No, you didn’t, you wouldn’t be able to disappoint me, baby,” Keith said, the nickname slipping.
Lance’s face flushed at the pet name, and he quickly looked away from Keith in embarrassment. “Are you sure?” he asked hesitantly.
“Of course I’m sure. It doesn’t matter what we’re doing, I’m happy to just be with you, and I want you to be happy too,” Keith said, gently rubbing his thumb in circles along the back of Lance’s hand.
“Is there something else you would like to do?” Keith asked. “I mean, you don’t have to stay at all,” he added hurriedly, “if you’d like to just go home, that’s totally fine. I promise I don’t mind.”
Lance was quiet for a few seconds before timidly making eye contact with Keith and quietly asking, “Can we just sit like this for a little while?” Keith nodded, relaxing against the couch again. Lance leaned back, too, his side pressing against Keith. Maybe one day they’d talk about why the sight of blood and the sounds of violence upset Lance so much, but for now, they were content to just sit with each other in peaceful silence.