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“Why the fuck would you jump in like that!?”
“You were getting your ass kicked!!” Lance threw his hands up in the air exasperated.
“You still didn’t have to get involved! I could’ve handled it!!” Keith angrily stormed after him. It was late and they probably shouldn’t be yelling this much but they were near the beach anyway. It got loud sometimes. People expected it.
Lance rolled his eyes. “Maybe you didn’t hear me ‘cause you got brain damage. You were getting your ass handed to you! What was I supposed to do, let you get pulverized!? Why the Hell are you so mad, Keith!?”
Keith snarled and shoved Lance roughly. He almost stumbled back into a dumpster before he caught himself. “I don’t need you fighting my battles for me!” he snapped.
Lance’s wide eyes narrowed into a hard glare. “Well excuse me for being concerned about you dick!” Lance shoved him back. His movements were sharp but not nearly as powerful.
“I didn’t ask you to be concerned about me, you phenomenal prick!” Keith shoved him again.
“That’s what friends do Keith!” Lance shoved him again but only to put a bit of distance between them. “They get concerned! Especially when they find one of their friends in a five on one fight involving the likely leader of the freaky cult from school! What the fuck man, what did you honestly expect me to do!?”
“Not fucking that!!!”
“You would have done it!”
“Fuck you!”
“Oh yeah real eloquent, Keith! Pull your head out of your ass when you’re done trying to find comebacks up there!” Lance crossed his arms but stopped short and winced when his hand rubbed up against a nasty patch of road rash on his arm, courtesy of said five on one turned five on two fight.
“If you had just minded your own business you wouldn’t be having that problem!”
“And you’d be unconscious in a ditch somewhere! Fuck, Keith, what kind of friend do you think I am!?”
“We are not friends!!!” Keith slammed Lance against the back wall of the building they were cutting behind, one hand gripping his shirt and the other clenching around his bicep painfully tight and irritating more than one bruise.
Lance hissed and let out a groan, head bouncing off of the wall. His hands instinctively fisted into the sides of Keith’s shirt.
“We’re not friends and you know it.” Keith’s breathing was ragged but his glare was unwavering. The height difference between them was no deterrent to his anger.
Lance blinked, hurt flashing across his face so quickly that neither of them really noticed it. Without missing a beat, he moved one hand to the front of Keith’s already torn shirt, gripping the fabric tightly and pulling him even closer, the other one coming around to fist in Keith’s hair, holding him in place, forcing him to make eye contact. Their bodies were pressed together, faces so close they could feel each other's’ heavy breathing on their faces. “Have I told you recently how much of a pompous asshole you are?” he ground out. “Because if I almost forgot that fact I can only imagine how long it’s been since it’s occurred to you.”
Keith said nothing, just stood for a moment trying to regulate his breathing.
They were a mess. Lance’s entire left side was spattered with road rash, angry and bleeding in places, courtesy of his tank top and shorts leaving him exposed. His cheek had been cut at some point and Keith had seen bruises already setting in whenever the open sleeves of his shirt moved to expose more of his ribs.
Keith wasn’t any better. He was already pretty beat up before Lance arrived and by the end of it they were both sporting split lips. He’d need to do a full assessment when he finally got home but he had payed a lot more attention to Lance’s injuries than he did to his own and he wasn’t about to stop and take stock now.
“Why can’t you just let people care about you?” Lance’s voice was firm and strong, eyes scanning over Keith’s face as if he actually expected him to give in and answer for once.
Keith didn’t answer because at that point something inside of him just snapped and he stopped giving a fuck about literally anything so the obvious course of action for him was to pull Lance forward by his shirt collar and smash their lips together.
Lance stiffened for a moment- a split second where the hand in Keith’s hair pulled and Keith flat out moaned - and any hesitation he might have had evaporated so fast Keith could feel it.
Lance kissed back hard .
They both hissed at the pressure on their injured lips but the lapse in movement was gone as soon as Keith ran his tongue over the seam of Lance’s lips. Lance mimicked the action before opening his mouth slightly and Keith bit at his lower lip.
Lance whimpered, the hand gripping his shirt relaxing into curled fingers and open palm resting over his erratic heartbeat. “Fuck, Keith-”
Keith slid his tongue into Lance’s mouth and pinned him harder against the wall, sliding his hands down to his hips and pulling them forward harshly. He shoved his knee in between lance’s legs and the noise he let out when Lance rolled his hips against his thigh was nothing short of primal.
“Lance,” Keith’s voice was hoarse and whatever he was going to say next was choked off in a gasp when Lance tugged sharply on Keith’s hair and buried his face in Keith’s neck, biting harshly. “You fucking dick,” he panted.
Lance rolled his hips again as way of reply and Keith couldn’t help but roll his eyes because of course Lance could be snarky without using words. Keith yanked his hips forward, grinding his knee up roughly and spoke over the choked noise Lance made. “Don’t sass people with your dick. It’s impolite.”
“Better than being a dick,” Lance quipped before kissing Keith again, instantly sliding his tongue into his mouth.
Keith decided to forgo protesting the blatant callout in favor of kissing back and sliding his hands up Lance’s shirt, tracing over muscle and bruises, scraping his nails over his ribs.
Lance hummed in approval, hand sliding down his chest and towards the waistline of Keith’s jeans but before he could touch him someone cleared their throat.
“I mean if you guys want to fuck behind a disease infested bar you do you but I wouldn’t recommend it.”
Keith and Lance flew apart, Keith leaving so suddenly that Lance, who was unprepared to so quickly have to support his own weight again, almost went crashing to the ground. They both turned wide eyes to their unexpected audience and found a very indifferent looking waiter lugging an overfull trash bag behind him.
“Also I would request you at least move to the other side of the dumpster so that we can take out the trash without having to try to get around you.”
Keith and Lance exchanged wide eyed, embarrassed looks with each other before looking back at the waiter.
“Uh- sorry for the inconvenience!” Lance blurted as he and Keith simultaneously ran past him.
They didn’t stop running until they were three blocks away when they had to part ways.
“So-,” Keith panted. “Are we gonna-”
“Talk about-?” Lance was also breathless
Keith nodded, still trying to catch his breath.
Lance shrugged as best he could while bent over with his hands on his knees. “You started it.”
Keith bristled. “You went with it!”
“You would have too.”
“Fuck you.”
“That did seem to be how things were going.”
Keith facepalmed. “Why are you like this?”
Lance winked. “You’re the one who’s friends with me.”
“We’re not friends,” Keith muttered.
This time the hurt on Lance’s face was painfully obvious and lingering. There would be no denying or ignoring it.
“We’re not friends,” he said again, stronger this time. “Not just friends,” he looked away. “I mean maybe we are but we’re something else too. It’s been there for a while and I know you know it but you never acknowledge it and-” he sighed. “And it makes me think that maybe I am the only one that gets that there’s something else . Maybe for you there isn’t anything more but… ‘Friend’ doesn’t really fit you anymore. It did once but now it just makes me feel sick. Like everything tastes bitter and-”
Lance was staring at him in awe, jaw dropped and eyes shining and Keith realized that he had just poured his heart out and was instantly defensive. “What are you staring at!?”
“Holy shit,” Lance breathed. “You’ve been pissy at me for two months because you like me !?”
Keith gaped.
Lance let out a breathless laugh. “Fucking Hell Keith do you know how hard I’ve been trying to figure out what I did to make you hate me all of a sudden??”
“Um…”
“I was so confused! I mean I know we fought all the time when we first met but then when we became friends it changed and I was so happy when we could finally hold a conversation without yelling at each other. I remember the first time that happened I literally cried , Keith! We talked about space without yelling at each other and after you left I actually shed tears! But then when you got all defensive again I thought maybe I did something and I was desperate to fix it because I couldn’t handle you hating me again!” Lance was crying now but he had a wobbly smile on his face and keith honestly wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do. “I asked Hunk and Pidge and they couldn’t figure it out either!”
“Have… have I really been that bad lately?”
“Yes!” Lance wiped at his eyes. “Yes you have because you’re an emotionally constipated bastard who can’t tell when the most obvious person on the planet has a crush on you!”
Keith simultaneously felt guilt and excitement swooping through his stomach and building in his chest. “I- what??” It was hard to speak around the pressure in his throat.
“I like you, you ass! And I was fine with that never going anywhere until you decided to yell at me every time I tried to talk to you or- or touch you or-” Lance hiccuped and Keith surged forward, cupping his face in his hands.
“Shhh Lance it’s okay. I am so sorry. I should have explained myself sooner, I shouldn’t have taken it out on you. I’m sorry I-” he sighed, frustrated with himself, and wiped under Lance’s eyes with his thumbs. “I really went about this the fucked up way, huh?” he gave a small smile.
Lance laughed shakily. “The most fucked up way.”
Keith nodded. “Can I get a do over?”
Lance bit his lip against a smile and nodded.
Keith stepped away and Lance used the opportunity to wipe his face and try to compose himself.
While he was doing that, Keith looked around before decisively walking into the grass next to the sidewalk and picking a tiny bouquet of flowers that were honestly probably weeds but he really couldn’t be picky right now. He quickly stood and hid the flowers behind his back and strode back over to Lance right as he was looking up.
“Hi, Lance,” Keith said making no effort to contain the smile on his face.
“Hi, Keith,” Lance mimicked, only making a token effort to keep a casual expression.
“I really like you,” he started then stopped and pretended to think for a moment. “I really really really like you. A lot. An embarrassingly large amount if I’m being honest.”
Lance giggled and Keith felt his heart melt along with any embarrassment he may have felt.
“And I was wondering,” he held out the flowers and Lance’s expression was enough for Keith to sign the rest of his heart away. “If you’d like to go catch a movie Saturday. And maybe be my boyfriend. Depending on how you think the date goes. Because that’s what it would be. A date. Not just two friends hanging out. I’m gonna hold your hand and stuff. Because it’s a date. And I like you.”
Lance took the flowers from him so carefully that Keith could visibly see the slight shake in his hands. He held them like they were the most precious thing anyone had ever given him and he idly wondered if anyone had ever given Lance flowers before.
“I would love to. More than anything.”
Keith grinned and, had they not been through the night they just went through, he would have been tempted to let out an ecstatic ‘Really???’ Instead he took Lance’s free hand and laced their fingers together. The biggest smile he’d ever felt fixed firmly but easily on his face, he stood on his toes slightly and kissed Lance on the cheek. “Awesome.”
Lance laughed but kissed his cheek back. “Oh yeah, real eloquent,” he said softly. “Get your head out of the clouds when you’re done looking for comebacks up there.”
“I don’t think I will,” Keith shook his head. “I like it up here.”
“Yeah,” Lance kissed him lightly on the lips, too quick for Keith to respond to. “Me too.”