Chapter Text
Lance was anything but happy.
In fact, if you were passing by and happened to see him pacing in circles behind the school ground you'd think, 'man, that guy looks really pissed off'. Which he was. Pissed that he had waited for over half an hour for Keith fucking Kogane to show up at the location he had specified.
The story was this; Lance was a fairly popular kid in his high school (although "known" would be a better word to describe it). He was friendly, open to all people and was more often than not the life of the party. The kind of guy who considered himself everyone's best friend.
So he liked people and he liked girls . Which there were plenty of in his school. Pretty ones too! But there was this one obstacle in his life, this one specific obstacle who rocked a mullet and had a face of full indifference as he practically stole any chance Lance had with getting himself a girlfriend or two.
Keith.
The guy he had dubbed as his rival, always trying to one up him whether it be at sports or test scores, always getting all the girls. Dark, mysterious, Keith. The lone wolf. The bane of his existence. How could a guy with a mullet get more girls than him?! A mullet for Christ's sake!
Lance had had a beef with Keith ever since they got placed in the same class over a year ago. At first he'd been cool with Keith, despite his awful taste in haircuts. Hell, he had even felt a small sparkle of admiration towards him because everything he did seemed to come natural to him. Everything except social skills. So Lance had thought, he was gonna try and chat with him, maybe they could be friends. But that thought had quickly shattered after a few interactions. They clatched, Keith being too closed off and brushing off all of the friendly gestures and Lance being too quick to take offense.
Lance classed him as a grade A asshat.
What had been a small spark of admiration became a flame of resentment and jealousy. He declared Keith his rival and they had been butting heads ever since (with more gusto from Lance's side). Everything became a challenge when it came to his fixation with Keith and to top it all he was really popular with the girls.
He practically has all the girls dancing at his feet and he turns them all down like he doesn't even know what he's got! If he was Keith he'd have all the girlfriends by now. Like, at least ten. But he didn't have girls fawning over him, Keith had. He was hogging them all for himself and Lance was tired of it. He was gonna take his frustration out on the source of his frustration.
So he wrote him a letter of challenge.
Sure, it was "childish", according to Pidge.
Sure, it was "probably a bad idea", according to Hunk.
And, SURE , he "should probably improve his calligraphy skills because it looks like a toddler had splattered ink over a piece of paper" according to Allura, but DAMMIT he was gonna do this with style!
He had put a lot of pent up frustration into the letter, trying to make it look as menacing as possible to, you know, try to assert dominance. Let him know what was coming. Maybe it would give him a fright. If that stone cold heart of his could even harbour any such emotions was yet to be tested though. Any kind of emotion Keith ever showed could be categorised into “leave me alone” or “I don’t know how to interact like a normal human being”.
The letter had been shoved into Keith’s shoe locker on top of the several love letters that had already started piling up during lunch time (it was more like a mailbox at this point). It irked him how a guy like him could have so much game when he himself was a delight and way more caring than Mr. Broody. With a few curses muttered under his breath he went back when the bell signaled that class was starting and now, a few hours later, here he was. Aimlessly pacing, ready to throw down, but no Keith in sight.
An hour had passed and he decided that it was the maximum amount of waiting he was willing to put up for that guy.
A night’s sleep had not done much to cool his temper and Lance only felt his anger grow as he walked into class with just enough time for his morning glares (for Keith) and high fives (for Hunk). His sour mode must have been evident, judging by the look of concern on his friend’s face.
“Soooo how’d your fight with Keith go yesterday? Did you win? Like, I’m just guessing here, but judging by that weak high five and pout I take it it did not go super well,” Hunk said as Lance took a seat beside him, emphasizing the “not”. He looked relieved that he didn’t have any noticeable bruises or cuts on him.
“I’m not pouting.” Lance said, pouting. “And there was no winner since Mullet head over there totally ditched me.”
“What so he didn’t show up at all? Oh man, that’s cold. Although Pidge did tell you that he probably wasn’t going to go along with that. And I did tell you it was a bad idea.”
“Yeah but he could at least have told me that he wasn’t going to show up so I didn’t have to wait there like some idiot!” he hisses, pointing a very accusing finger at the culprit sitting a few rows ahead, looking out the window like he hadn’t committed a felony. Jerk.
“I don’t know man, maybe you should talk to him about it during break? Maybe he was busy. Or he could have missed your letter.” He coughed, adding under his breath “or maybe he couldn’t read your handwriting...”
Lance decided to ignore the last comment, instead focusing his attention back on Keith. Even as the girls giggled, whispering among themselves about how cool and mysterious he was, Keith didn’t seem to pay any attention whatsoever. It was like he was in his own sad little world where no one was welcome, where everyone was an intruder and it only made Lance’s frown deepen.
Oh, he was going to intrude.
Once lunch time arrived he set out to find Keith. He always tried to sneak away during these hours, probably to brood alone in the dark about how hard it was to be so popular or whatever. How Lance knew this was simply because he had to pay attention to his rival’s pattern, to collect data. Not because he had a crush on the guy and was obsessed with him, as Pidge liked to fool themselves to believe. As if, as ever.
After running around through half the school he finally found Keith on the rooftop. A vacant look in his eyes. He didn’t seem to notice when Lance came stomping up the stairs, or he didn’t pay him any mind. The nerve!
“ YOOOU!! ”
Lance heaved as he tried to even his breathing, still out of breath from running up all those stairs. He did feel a small sense of satisfaction seeing the other boy flinch at his loud volume, but it was almost lost in his frustration of being stood up.
“What,” Keith said, turning slightly to look at him as if he had oh so rudely interrupted him during his most precious hours. Good.
“What the HELL is your problem!?”
“What’s my problem?” Keith frowned. “I’m not the one shouting at my face. What’s your problem?”
“ YOU’RE my problem! Why didn’t you show up yesterday!? If you were going to ditch me you could at least have told me instead of being a jerk about it and making me wait for nothing!”
Keith’s brows furrowed further at Lance’s accusation. “What do you mean?” He looked confused. “I didn’t make any plans to meet up with you yesterday.” Lance stomped his foot in frustration, causing the other to look at him oddly.
“YOU-!” He pointed at Keith for the second time that day, trying to convey as much annoyance and displeasure into his index finger- “Didn’t you see the letter I wrote you!?”
At this, Keith’s demeanor completely changed, he went from leaning calmly against the rail, to going rigid as if those words had triggered something. His eyes went wide and a slight blush could be seen creeping up his face. This went unnoticed by Lance, too busy being petty and offended.
“Y… you too?” Keith stammered. A comment that didn’t make much sense to Lance but he ignored it to get to the point.
“Yesterday I wrote you a letter and put it in your shoe locker. What the hell happened to it didn’t you read it!?”
Keith averted his eyes, looking strangely nervous as Lance demanded answers. He heaved out a sigh, taking a moment to tug at his collar, he could feel the sweat on his back from all the running he’d done to catch up with Keith. Ugh, the things he had to put up with for his rival, who currently looked as if he was contemplating something really hard. At least he had the decency to look guilty.
“Sorry I...” Keith started, “I didn’t see it… I already threw it away with the rest of the letters that were in my locker.”
“ WHAT!? ” Oh now he was pissed again. “ DUDE! I put SO MUCH effort into that I was really trying to convey my feelings! And you just threw it away!?”
Keith flinched. “I mean… I only ever get letters from girls so.. Um, I wasn’t expecting...”
“Oh stop bragging, yo-!”
“ I -!” Keith cut him off, finally looked up and meeting Lance’s eyes with firm determination-
“I accept.”
Lance blinked once. Twice. A smile spreading out on his lips because YES he was finally getting his showdown. Obviously he knew that it was a letter of challenge he had written him, there really wasn’t anything else it could have been so he was glad that it was clear. Even though Keith was acting really weird, a shy smile tugging at his lips as Lance fist pumped, he didn’t really care. He was going to beat Keith and it was going to be sweet . A sweet victory for Lance.
They were interrupted when the school bell rang, signaling that lunch break had ended. Lance looked over to Keith and made sure to glare once more before backing to the entrance. “Aw man, it’s your fault I didn’t get to eat my lunch! Whatever, I’ll get you for this later. You and me! Back of the school after classes! Got it?!”
Keith nodded, looking a bit surprised yet eager. “Yeah. I’ll be there.”
“Good!” Was the last thing Lance said before turning to skip down the stairs. He was going to get his revenge.