Chapter Text
It took three hours and maybe about twenty times up and down the stairs, but Lance was finally moved into his first Adult Apartment. Granted, there was no elevator and that guy sitting in the lobby gave him the creeps, but what could you do when you’re a young and cool guy who just moved to a big and exciting city about to start working at his first Adult Job? Lance was, as far as he was concerned, the Ultimate Adult. The only thing left to do was to wait for his roommate to move in tomorrow and unpack and together, they’d be two coolest dudes living it up in the city together, working by day, getting in trouble by night.
As Lance finished up the last of his pizza, he heard the ever so familiar sensation of vibration in his pocket. Hastily wiping his hands on his shorts, he pulled out his phone. There was a text from his new roommate.
From: Cool New Roommate
Hey man, you’re really cool and all but I got a better deal on an apartment closer to my job. I know it’s kinda dickish to drop out on you the day before I move in but you’re a popular guy, you’ll find somebody. Let’s get a beer some time!
Lance stared at his phone in horror. He was not a popular guy, he knew nobody in this city, and there was no way in hell his entry level job was going to pay for his rent alone. He needed a roommate or his title of Ultimate Adult was about to be ripped away from his grips.
What the hell am I gonna do? he thought to himself. He slowly laid face down into the carpet, arms and legs splayed out. He opened his mouth and screamed into the void that was his beige carpet. He stayed like that for a good thirty seconds until he did what he always did when he had a crisis, call Hunk.
Lance lifted his head and pulled his phone close to his face, looking for his desired contact. After furiously stabbing at the call button with his thumb, he waited for his best friend and life coach to answer the phone.
“Lance, how was moving in, I’m—“
“Hunk, my roommate dropped out of living with me,” Lance interrupted, quickly losing his cool.
“You mean the really cool one?” Hunk replied in shock.
“The one,” Lance said with a sigh, sitting up and leaning his back against the bare wall.
“Well, obviously you need to find another roommate,” Hunk said, thinking aloud. “Maybe write up an ad on Craigslist or something?”
“And meet the Craigslist Killer’s best friend, The Other Craigslist Killer? No thank you, I don’t want to be a Lifetime movie, Hunk.”
“Well, you don’t have much of a choice dude,” Hunk answered, completely ignoring Lance’s overreaction.
“Fine, I guess I’ll do it. It’s not like you care if I die anyway, since you moved in with Pidge instead of me,” Lance grumbled.
In the background Lance heard the faint “Sorry I actually wash dishes, Lance”, coming from Pidge. He must have been on speaker phone.
“Rude,” Lance shouted into his phone, hoping that Pidge would hear him from whatever room they were in. Lance didn’t even care if Hunk’s eardrum bursted in the process.
“Well, Lance, I think you should put in a Craigslist ad, because the sooner you secure rent, the better. Now I have to go, there’s some reading I have to do before work tomorrow. Love you.” Hunk repeated as he hung up the phone.
Hunk was no help but as much as Lance wanted to not admit, Hunk was right. With a sigh, Lance opened up the browser of his phone to go on the Craigslist website. Quickly, he went into the apartments section and started up his call to action.
WANTED: COOL NEW ROOMMATE
Hey, I’m Lance and this guy that I thought was totally chill just ditched me for a better apartment. Tbh, I need a roommate ASAP. I’m on 20th and Chester and preferably I want a roommate in their early to mid twenties but I’ll talk anybody as long as you’re not the craigslist killer, you feel me? I like space, video games, and long walks on the beach. The elevator in the building is broken rn, and if I’m not at work, I’ll help you move in and stuff. Alright, my number is (XXX) XXX-XXXX, if you’re interested, rent’s like 900ish a month with bills and stuff besides internet. Hmu if you want to do this.
Kisses, Lance.
Without a single thought, Lance posted the ad hoping that nobody would think he was weird. He would deal with any answers in the morning while he begun to unpack. After he crawled into his be and turned off his light, he thanked his past self for being smart enough to move in two days before he had to start his job.
———
Lance woke up to his new apartment, feeling almost calm until he remembered the current situation he was facing. He checked his phone and luckily discovered a handful of texts. One was from Hunk, asking if he made the Craigslist advertisement yet, another from one of his older sisters reminding him not to be afraid of the ghost girl living in his bedroom closet she claimed existed (Lance knew she wasn’t real but still totally kept his stuffed bear in his bed for safety), and finally a third from an unknown number.
From: Unknown Number
Hey, is this the guy from Craigslist who signed his wanted ad with “kisses”? Even though I think you’re weird and creepy, I’m desperate for an apartment and you’re desperate for a roommate so I guess we’ll work out. Call me when you get this?
Lance could not believe his eyes when he read the text. How dare this guy call Lance weird? He was the one looking up Craigslist ads at two o’clock in the morning. The unknown number was right though, Lance couldn’t afford to be choosey.
With a calming breath, Lance clicked on the sender’s number and called him. As the phone rang, he rolled over in his bed to look out the window. Unsurprisingly, his view was the exterior of another apartment building.
“Hello?” The voice from the other line asked.
“Hi, this is the guy looking for the apartment, right?” Lance asked, wincing. Of course it was, he directly clicked on the number straight from the text.
“Yea, it is. I can move in tomorrow,” the man on the other line confirmed.
“Alright, yea, I feel like this abrupt and I should ask you questions first, but at this point I just am freaking out about the rent since I fronted my ex-roommate’s security deposit. So you’d owe me about 600? Is that cool?”
There was some shuffling on the other line. “Yea that works. I’m not broke, it’s just my brother’s girlfriend moved in and she’s nice and all but I just realized I should be moved out now if they’re living together,” New roommate admitted.
“Oof, yea. After school, I moved back in and realized my sisters were too much and I needed to move far, far away from them.” Lance shared, laughing at the thought.
“Cool, I’m glad you understand. What’s the address, I’ll be there around two tomorrow.”
“I’ll be at work then but I’ll leave the second key on top on the molding of the door. I doubt anybody is going to come into the apartment and steal my box full of spoons and forks.”
“But spoons and forks are useful,” the voice replied half to himself. He quickly recovered, “Sounds good. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yea! Talk to you tomorrow!” Lance said as he ended the call.
Just as Lance was feeling pretty proud of himself, he realized something. He didn’t know his new roommate’s new name.
Awkwardly, he brought up his phone and wrote up the message, “Wait, I just realized, what’s your name?”
Lance quickly got the response, “Keith”.
With a satisfied grunt, Lance finally crawled out of his bed and began to unpack his boxes.
———
Lance stumbled up the familiar flight of stairs with groceries in each hand. His whole body was sore from yesterday’s unpacking and then hectic first day of work. All he wanted was to take off this dumb button down shirt and meet his new roommate. Maybe they would watch something on Netflix together and get to know each other better.
Lance stood at his door, and took a steadying breath. He opened the door, getting ready to either be excited of horrified.
“Keith, you here?” Lance called as he opened the door.
Sitting in the living room was a man, around Lance’s age, shirtless, watching TV, eating a bowl of mac and cheese. He looked familiar, and as soon as the two made eye contact, the not-so-stranger froze in his spot too.
“Kogane?!” Lance shouted as he dropped his groceries.